Get footloose and fancy-free with Jooce

Apparently half a billion people across the world log on to the internet from a cybercafe everyday. Jooce – a Luxembourgh-based start up – aims to tap into this huge reservoir of “cybernomads” with its new virtual desktop.

This free, web-based desktop aims to give users all the functions of their very own PCs from any computer with an internet connection – “their very own private space online,” according to Jooce founder Stefan Surzyck. Jooce gives users easy access to emails, online storage, instant messaging and such.

However, much of the core functionalities that it currently aggregates appears quite old-hat – you can pretty much do the same thing with free services from Google, Yahoo! and the like. Jooce does stand out with a slick and quite intuitive user interface, though, and it is being aimed squarely at the developing digital world – Jooce is involved with a number of digital-divide bridging projects in places like the Philippines, India & China.

Jooce is just one among many companies pursuing the holy-grail of a web-based operating system. Its long-term business model seems a little hazy at the moment, but Jooce does have the backing of Mangrove – the VC firm that initially funded Skype.