Filed under: Internet, Windows, Beta, web 2.0

Sobees, a desktop widget engine that's been in private beta since March is now open to the public. The public beta version includes a ton of updates, and I have to say the new Sobees look a lot nicer than the version I looked at earlier this year.

The Sobees platform is designed to let you access web content on your desktop without launching a web browser. There's an RSS reader and a handful of other widgets including a news aggregator and an election 2008 widget that is filled with up to date news on the US presidential election.

There's also a search bar that will let you conduct web searches (using Windows Live Search only for now) without launching a web browser.

The overall platform is rather slick and the widgets are much more attractive than the hexagon-shaped widgets Sobees was showing off in March. But I have to wonder whether it makes that much sense to launch a widget engine whose sole purpose is to provide information that you could easily access with a few clicks in a web browser. Maybe I'm wrong, but I imagine most people using internet-connected computers these days have a web browser open more often than it's closed, which makes Sobees rather redundant, no matter how slick it looks.

Sobees desktop widget engine launches public beta originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments