AOL, this blog's parent company, has acquired widget and web desktop company Goowy. Goowy's original product was a webOS or webtop that you can use as an online desktop when you're away from your home computer. But while there are a ton of these services around, we're not convinced that people actually use them very much. So it's Goowy's more recent product that probably caught the eye of AOL: the YourMinis widget platform.

YourMinis widgets can be placed on almost any web page. You can add them to your iGoogle, Netvibes, or Facebook pages. Or you can add them to a desktop widget application like Vista Sidebar or Yahoo! Widget Engine. Widgets range from a YouTube video player to a Twitter application.

Goowy has been working with AOL to develop widgets for the MyAOL personalized homepage service.

There are all kinds of web-based desktops running to and fro out there, and it seems that the web 2.0 world is pushing for an app to be the next killer desktop-on-the-web. It hasn't happened yet. It may never happen, since everyone has different tastes, and like different things. Another web-based desktop has entered the arena, and made a better impression on me than many of the others I've tried. Yourminis.com is a Goowy Media product that is very fast loading, unlike many I have seen. Even though I consider myself to be an early adopter, I still don't know if I see a good enough value in the service of a web based desktop to use one every day, in a production, hardcore, pick-up-the-gun-and-lets-go-hunting capacity. Yourminis might be changing my mind a bit. The key difference for me is that yourminis bookmarklet adds an Mac expose-like functionality to both Firefox and IE. You can hit CTRL and ~ or just the icon for yourminis to view your page. Yourminis also has the usual modules (or minis I guess) you would find elsewhere, but also some that I haven't seen at other sites. You'll find your digg, del.icio.us, Flickr, gmail, .mac mail, iTunes, Amazon, and many more. Looking for as web-xpose, yourminis has it. Not quite a vote for killer app, but it could be popular.

At this point web-based "operating systems" have to fight seemingly insurmountable odds to really work well. There are limits in the codebase (choosing JavaScript versus Flash, or a combo of both, results in a few compromises). There are limits within the browser itself (can't save if the window gets closed, or if the connection goes south). But that's not stopping people from trying. Webby's World has a little blurb about some of these attempts, and mentions a relative newcomer: XIN. I've been playing with Goowy for a while now and find it amusing and useful, not to mention getting better all the time. It's only a matter of time and maturity before the best of these are either acquired or get swept up in a MySpace-esque social vector. Anyone got a particular favorite in this race of could be's? To me they are like fancy cars- nice to look at, but not practical for driving to work every day.

Last month I mentioned that Flash-based personalized home page Goowy was working on adding IM and online file storage functionality. It took a bit longer than I'd expected, but those features are now online. The web-based IM feature lets you sign on to MSN, Yahoo, ICQ or AOL and chat in your browser, and the web-based storage gives you a free 1GB virtual hard drive via Box.net. You can try Goowy out without registering by logging into the demo account.

[Via TechCrunch]

Goowy, a personalized home page site whose main distinguishing feature until now has been its Flash-based interface, is planning to add some more compelling features soon, namely instant messaging and online file storage. According to TechCrunch's Michael Arrington the file storage feature will be through Box.net using its new API and include up to 1GB storage (with a crappy 5MB-per-file limit), and the IM component will work with all the major IM networks (a la Meebo). Head over to TechCrunch for a screenshot of the new IM feature.

Speaking of Google Talk and personalized home pages, though, it seems odd to me that Google has yet to integrate its own IM service with its own Personalized Home. Perhaps they're working on it.