Review: Webaroo Service too Good to be True

By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer 4 minutes ago

It sounds too good to be true: the highlights of the Web squeezed into a data file small enough to fit on your laptop or mobile phone, letting you browse even when you don't have a live Internet connection. After giving Webaroo a whirl, I found that it is, indeed, too good to be true.

Webaroo, downloadable as a free "beta" test from Webaroo Inc., promises to make it "simple for you to take the Web with you - and find what you are looking for anywhere, anytime." On your PC or phone, it stores the Web sites it believes will be most useful for finding nuggets of information.

You customize Webaroo by downloading "Web packs," ranging from 64 megabytes for world news to 6 gigabytes for the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. There are packs targeted for several cities around the world, each as large as 256 megabytes. There's also one for soccer, and others are in the works.

You also can direct Webaroo to download and store specific Web sites you frequent.

Webaroo, which plans to eventually display targeted ads next to search results, can automatically update the sites whenever you are connected to ensure you have the latest information. Problem is, you must tell it to do so -- and it's not apparent unless you happen to view your preference settings.

My expectations were low and skepticism high. I knew Webaroo wouldn't be able to handle my e-mail or instant messaging without an Internet connection. Nor was I expecting the ability to post on message boards or download video on demand.

But I was hoping for enough of the basics to answer reasonable questions.

More often than not, I couldn't easily get what I wanted.

I began by requesting the Web packs for Wikipedia, world news and New York, where I live. But Wikipedia never arrived. Only later did I learn I didn't have enough disk space; Webaroo didn't immediately make that clear.

I then tried to research restaurants, museums and hobbies in New York.

A search for the movie "Thank You for Smoking" got me the previous day's showtimes from AOL City Guide, but links to that day's and the next day's showings produced error messages. "24 Hours on Craigslist" returned a mention in The New Yorker magazine that the documentary was playing -- but I got no reviews or other details about it.

Being close to lunchtime, I decided to search for sushi restaurants on New York's Upper East Side. The first three listings were instead for Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai restaurants along with delis on the WEST Side. The fourth result was for a general neighborhood directory, with no information on each restaurant's cuisine or quality.

I also tried to find my cable service provider, but a search for "cable television" got me a bed and breakfast that offers cable TV, a computer repair shop called Cable Doctor Co. and a magazine review of an HBO movie. "New York cable television" returned information on the Mets and Yankees baseball teams, not Time Warner Cable.

I managed to find the hours for the Museum of Modern Art, but nothing on its current exhibit on Edvard Munch.

To be fair, not all searches were frustrating. After trying various search terms, I managed to find what's currently featured at the Guggenheim Museum. I also immediately found airport parking information, a subway map and the week's weather forecast.

Searches for news were acceptable. "Egypt blasts," "Nepal protests" and "Thai elections" got me some information on current events, even if the results weren't as extensive as those at Google Inc.'s news aggregator.

I can empathize with Webaroo's challenge in making the most information available in the fewest number of bytes. That means giving high priority to directories and other sites with "high content density." But such sites can lack depth and be poorly organized.

Webaroo says it wants to err on the side of brevity, but it may soon offer size options -- those who want the bare-bones can get the smallest version of the New York pack, while info-hungry consumers like me can get it super-sized, even if it means having to delete family photos from my hard drive to make room.

Also in the works is a "Web to go" pack -- some 40 gigabytes covering just about any question you might have.

The closest to it for now is Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia in which anyone can contribute, regardless of expertise. Although critics say such openness results in inaccuracies and biases, proponents credit its collaborative nature for a more comprehensive tome that can reverse errors more quickly.

I tried deleting some of those family photos to make room for it, but Webaroo still refused, even with 6.8 gigabytes free (Webaroo recommends having at least 10 gigabytes available). Nor would it let me use an external drive with more space (that option is coming).

I shudder to think how something that large will fit on a mobile device. Webaroo says you need a Windows Pocket PC device with at least 512 megabytes of external storage -- for Wikipedia, you'd need an 8 gigabyte compact flash memory card.

The desktop version works on Windows computers only.

Webaroo does provide some of the information you might need on the go, but unless you have plenty of storage space, I wouldn't bother. Spend that offline time reading a book or smelling the roses; either will be more enjoyable than trying to surf an abbreviated Web.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

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