Is it possible to squeeze the entire internet on to just one PC?

Webaroo, a technology start-up with offices in the United States and India, today launched a free service it claims will allow users to download all the useful information on the web on to the "tiny memory card" found in a laptop, handheld computer or even smartphone.

Once stored, the content can be searched even if the device is not connected to the web.

So far Webaroo is offering ready-made packages of concentrated content, on topics ranging from this year's football World Cup to city guides including London and Mumbai. Users can also tailor their own service by cherry-picking websites they want to store on their computers.

When an enabled machine is reconnected to the internet, the sources of information a user has chosen are automatically updated.

But Webaroo's ambitions range much further. Later this year the company hopes to release a service that will be able to store "the whole of the web" on a 40GB hard drive.

The key, Webaroo says, rests in giving users "more bang for the memory buck". Using techniques similar to a search engine such as Google, Webaroo "crawls" the internet, selecting pages "with high quality, broad coverage, and small size".

In the process it says it is able to discount the ever-expanding excess of usless information online.

The company hopes the service will revolutionise the way people use the web on the move.

"We asked ourselves: 'why can't you search the web anywhere, anytime?'," Brad Husick, the Webaroo president, said.

Webaroo also hopes to earn money through advertising. It argues that it offers advertisers the chance to reach potential customers through devices that are not connected to the internet.

The company also announced today a deal with Acer, the world's fourth-largest branded PC maker, under which the Webaroo system will come pre-installed on the manufacturer's machines.

Acer machines will come with 40 gigabytes of data representing a snapshot of the web, Webaroo said.

The idea of the "web, to go" could strike a chord with those early adopters who have found technologies designed to deliver mobile internet content have failed to live up to expectations.

The 3G technology that was supposed to deliver the web to mobile phones has so far failed to realise the potential sketched out at the height of the 1990s dotcom boom.

Pipex, the British internet company, last week announced a deal with Intel to bring Wimax internet coverage to Britain's large cities. But so far the "hotspot" coverage the technology delivers is patchy.

Webaroo's service is available as a free download at www.webaroo.com.

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