First off, I want to apologize if this is the wrong section.

My question centers around an idea that's been brewing in my head for over a year now. Is there any possible future in a Web hosting service that is integrated with a user's desktop file system?

Not sure what you mean, using a desktop as an FTP browser or something?

Well, was just reading about odesktop the other day, so here's the link: http://www.odesktop.net

I would say this is a step towards what you're questioning is possible here ;)

Cheers

Not only possible but very likely.
Look at where google is heading with the ajax applications over the net. There is also another company working very hard on the same applications and more. They aim to have the full functionality of MS office ran over the net, you will need no software on your desktop other than a browser to do word apps, power point and excel.

They are about 50% there.
The entire desktop over the net is not that far behind.

The one problem people have with this idea is data security. They like their data to be on their PC's as its quicker to access and gives a sence of the data is safe. Having it all on a remote server can be a bit worrying especially for businesses. Do you want your customer database accessible by a hacker? I know I don't

The one problem people have with this idea is data security. They like their data to be on their PC's as its quicker to access and gives a sence of the data is safe. Having it all on a remote server can be a bit worrying especially for businesses. Do you want your customer database accessible by a hacker? I know I don't

But aren't you selling it now?

How is the take up so far?

No, I don't necessarily mean hosting data online. I've already run a small site doing that. :) What I mean is having a folder or drive on a system, where users can drag and drop Website files. Almost like a perpetual FTP system, integrated into their file system.

No, I don't necessarily mean hosting data online. I've already run a small site doing that. :) What I mean is having a folder or drive on a system, where users can drag and drop Website files. Almost like a perpetual FTP system, integrated into their file system.
If you use Linux: this program is called Konqueror.

True, but most folks don't use Linux. :) I want to create something for the everyday person. Back to my original question, is this feasible from a business perspective?

Windows has a feature like this... Just for file transfers through FTP though... Drag and drop and what not...

Macs have been doing this same exact thing for quite some time, and I'm pretty sure every major OS can mount WebDav shares over the web.

As for business feasibility, yes it is feasible, but if you started up a service offering that no matter how good it was it would be copied pretty quickly because it is, unfortunately, not that difficult of a functionality to provide. Now a really neat emerging market is (as pointed out above) having an actual web desktop. Personally, I think that it is overrated as there are security concerns as well as internet accessibility concerns. What happens to your net desktop when you can't connect to the internet or something "goes wrong" in the system?

Aren't you talking about Remote Desktop here? I would say that this will basically replace the local desktop in a few years time with each person basically having their own VPS with OS etc online. For data security you could store it on a NAS etc.

The great advantage as has already been pointed out is that you won't need to purchase a PC or software. Just need a really good connection, monitor, keyboard and mouse etc and your off. MS are already gearing up with this scenario with their data center edition of Longhorn.

First off, I want to apologize if this is the wrong section.

My question centers around an idea that's been brewing in my head for over a year now. Is there any possible future in a Web hosting service that is integrated with a user's desktop file system?


FrontPage?
DreamWeaver?

There are others.

Hmm i think he is speaking of a compnent that users will be able to drag and drop their entire site in a specific dir locally and it in turn loads it to the hosting server with little or minimum user interation..but then again i may be wrong :)

Well, was just reading about odesktop the other day, so here's the link: http://www.odesktop.net

I would say this is a step towards what you're questioning is possible here ;)

Cheers

Yeah, I've been seeing their ads on WHT too, is anyone offering this service yet?

Ah, nevermind. Just forget I ever asked - none of you guys seem to understand what I mean, except for xsis-host. :)

Hi Daniel,

I have seen a few scripts at Hotscripts that appear to match what you are saying. Their interfaces may not be as pretty as Goowy or DesktopTwo but it's relatively easy to customize it. There are also several open source scripts that work like Odesktop. Just do a search in Google and you will find them.

Larry from California

Ah, nevermind. Just forget I ever asked - none of you guys seem to understand what I mean, except for xsis-host. :)

As I understand it, he effectively means to 'map a drive' to the FTP/public_html, so users can easily just drag a file over to the Z: drive and it's on his site.

I think this _is_ possible, however, most users probably don't know how to do this, If a hosting provider provided a little utility that when setup on a windows server did this for them, it would probably make it a very popular feature. The problem you will run into is a lot of clients use WYSIWYG editors, that would still need configured as a FTP (unless of course you simply set it to save the files directly to the Z: but I'd see issues with this too)

Ah, nevermind. Just forget I ever asked - none of you guys seem to understand what I mean, except for xsis-host. :)


It sounds like you are talking about what Citrix has offered for ages. All your applications, data etc. are on a server and all you need is a dumb terminal to connect. The Citrix client is available for most OS choices or you can publish the apps to be accessible froma web browser. If you really want to keep it simple WYSE and others make terminals with a built-in ICA client for Citrix, no real PC needed.

Larry, thanks for that - I'll go check it out! :)

Nick, yes that is exactly what I mean!!

Tom, not a dumb terminal, though - this is something folks would be able to use from home.

If I undersatnd you correctly, you are looking for this. http://www.webdrive.com/products/webdrive/index.html
I use it and it works great.

No, that's not what I'm talking about. But thanks. :)

Hello all. Introducing myself, I’m Bryan, CEO of Comdev, the producer of oDesktop. Please allow me to share my view on how online desktop is possible.

Online desktop or web-based desktop has the challenge of Internet connectivity and speed at this moment. I think even in years to come, the speed of the broadband will not able to overtake the speed of our computer hardware bus. Heavy-weight applications like MS Office and Adobe Photoshop are not feasible to be turned into online model as they are desktop-based publishing software.

Online desktop will make its place for applications that are needed online. Internet has changed our day to day life, and I bet most of us here can’t afford to skip a day without going online to look at our online stuff. Content, communications and collaborations are those online applications that will be in demand.

Web hosts have the infrastructure: bandwidth and storage. Here is what software vendors and web hosts can play the role to drive the Internet to more than Wolrd Wide Web of content, but a World Web Web of communications and collaborations. Isn't this is what Web 2.0 all about?

EyeOS is free, and it's 10x more developed. It also allows other applications to be developed on top on it.

Check out: eyeos.org

Any Web host can customize this open source script easily. Offshore developers in India and Russia can be hired for $10+ an hour these days. I'm working with one in San Francisco with 200 developers. They are headquartered here and very easy to work with.

Citrix and remote desktop are what work for business applications today. There is no integration required between different applications. Providing a subscription service for them seems to have a huge market potential. Citrix and remote desktop would allow users to access all of their desktop applications.

Google Apps are good but they are limited to just a few applications (word processing and spreadsheet).

Can't you do this with that gmail drive thing? You can have a gmail drive and just share an account, or maybe a network drive?

I came across Etelos today and was extremely impressed by their platform and applications store. This service will enable anyone interested in SaaS to buy, use, and/or sell their applications to businesses. Their partners are publicly traded companies with tons of expertise.

http://www.etelos.com/

Two more interesting applications. I bet there are many more I haven't see yet. The Web is getting more exciting each day.

Ghost virtual computer - http://G.ho.st

Zoho Office - www.zoho.com (http://www.zoho.com)

Rumor is that IE 8 will incorporate a Web desktop into the browser. Good news to all!

odesktop.net

Ha, I found another one: www.dekoh.com

All are open source and easy to build applications on. Not sure if they will do any good for Web hosts though. Very few has been selling scripts. Don't think any of these will change that.

Wow! Wow!

After seeing Dekoh and Adobe Apollo, I can tell how destop and the Web will integrate in the near future. (There is also the mobile piece I'm working on. But I can't quite connect that with desktop and the Web yet. Sorry.)

EyeOs, Goowy, Netvibes, etc. are really just start pages with prettier interfaces. Nothing exciting. ODesktop is not even half way there.

However, Dekoh and Adobe Apollo have the great potential to uproot the Web hosting industry. Just imagine desktop spaces being used in conjunction with Web spaces to host applications and media. Will they be a friend or foe? I think they can be both. It's a matter of leveraging what they offer to add to Web hosting services.

I'm talking to Dekoh. They are the most "innovative" winner for now!