A fabulous, ambitious virtual operating system, G.ho.st launched at Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco two years ago. The browser-based computers allow users to leave their desktop, files, and applications in the Amazon-hosted cloud and access them from just about any place or device with an internet connection.
G.ho.st, which already implements well-known applications such as Google Docs, Meebo, Last.fm, and Pandora, has now announced an open API for developers, allowing them to add any web-based application as an integrated part of the G.ho.st virtual desktop.
According to the site’s developers’ page, “The API is designed to be very light weight with a simple convenient approach to launching third-party apps by a URL and passing data as parameters to that URL. The API is entirely technology agnostic. Your web app can be AJAX, Flash, or applet with any back end, provided only it is launched in a web page with a URL.”
The API launches as part of the company’s developing GOSPL (G.ho.st web Operating System PLatform) architecture, outlined below:
We should note that for apps not contained in a single, swf file, G.ho.st will not be able to provide hosting. What they do offer is onscreen real estate, user intentification and profile information (based on consent), consent-based access to the user’s file system, and communication with the G.ho.st desktop and other third-party apps. In the future, the company also hopes to arrange monetization and billing services for web apps.
