Remember my continuing rant about how it’s time to just cache the entire Web and keep it local? A start-up named Webaroo has a similar idea. They’re offering free software (Windows only) that caches “webpacks” of pages that make up certain interest areas, and update those caches whenever you re-synch. Their current plan is the usual “pay for it all through advertising” model.
I’ve not tried it yet and don’t know how easy it is to personalize webpacks or how well they handle things like accessing pages that require sign-in, but it definitely looks like a good start. (And if they do the job well, I could easily see them winding up being purchased by one of the big players in search.)
(Thanks to Aileen for the link!)