The commenters are even more vocal, especially when other services are brought up, like Passpack. I've made no secret that I'm a huge fan of Passpack. The last time I bothered to look at my number of log-ins I have saved there, I was at over 75, and those are only the userids and passwords I use for services I've signed up for to review here at Profy. I keep none of my personal log-ins or banking information there. Do I think I'm a typical user? That's doubtful; I think most average Internet citizens use far fewer applications and log into far fewer sites than someone who writes about it.

But Drama 2.0 makes an excellent point; the enormous amount of press coverage of Data Portability started with what? An incident in which Robert Scoble was trying to port contact information for over 5000 contacts out of Facebook and into Plaxo. Most people don't have nearly that number of contacts, nor change or add sites with the frequency of people immersed in Web 2.0, so the assumption is that it's not something that the regular folks would want or need, right?

I used my personal brand of scientific testing; asking “regular” web users. My college-student sitter has over 300 contacts on Facebook, and I think the majority of college students have similar contact lists. What if she wanted to move networks? Would she rather start from scratch, giving her the power to weed through that freshman roommate she'd rather forget?

The simple answer was no. She wants the ability to easily move that data to a new service if she were to move. Her rationale? People are inherently lazy. They want to be able to move quickly with the least amount of work possible. They may not be Scoble, adding service after service, but they know that people move services all the time. Wasn't there a huge migration from MySpace to Facebook? Won't a lot of college students be adding LinkedIn once they enter the workforce?

Of course, the other perspective comes from those who have no interest in it. As a cousin of mine (a recent college graduate) responded, “If you can just transfer your friend list then there is really no point in leaving facebook. Finding your friends and adding them is part of the fun.”

Yes, a lot of technology is being built for, and reviewed by, people whose lives revolve around tech. But in a lot of cases, we either underestimate or overestimate what the “average” user. Just like tech addicts, they have different feelings about Web 2.0, and want different features from it. One commenter on my Jooce review felt the app wasn't ready because it didn't provide detailed information about file types and sizes. But does everyone want that data? Unless I'm cleaning up my hard drive, I don't look at the detailed view of my documents. Tech will always filter down from the techiest down to the least tech-oriented users, but assuming what those users want without actually asking is the biggest folly of all.

Jooce is the product of a Luxembourg-based start-up that details their vision as “a web application that:

• levels the online playing field by empowering the vast numer of web surfers to access the Internet each day from a cybercafe;
• is easy and fun to use;
• completely reinvents the user experience;
• makes every computer your computer.”

With localization for 17 countries, integrated support for AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo IM clients, and the ability to support media files as well as standard documents, Jooce appears to be well on their way to achieving their goal. They state in their blog that they aren't trying to be a Web OS, and have unique features that give credence to that assertion. For starters, there is a difference between your Desktop and your “Joocetop” which is more of a shared workspace where you can place common files, which makes Jooce more of an option for workgroups who aren't all in the same physical location, while still allowing each user to have their own personalized area as well.

The app has an attractive look and feel, but if you aren't particularly fond of the stereotypical blue and green Web 2.0 colors, you can upload your own images to use as a background, as well as change the animations for moving between Desktop and Joocetop and other actions.

The BBC noted in their coverage of Jooce that the intensive AJAX application can bog down on slower machines, however, and that could be a serious roadblock in attracting the targeted audience of “cybernomads” who may be using systems at libraries and other publicly-available PCs that don't have frequent upgrades. There is no part of the site that doesn't require scripting to run; disabling scripts will prevent you from accessing the site at all.

However, Jooce seems to have no trouble with cross-browser compatibility; I was able to access my account on my Mac (always a bonus when many sites are PC-only) on Firefox, Camino, and Safari. Being able to use as many possible hardware and browser configurations as possible is crucial to the success of an application like Jooce, and one that other Web OS companies should take note of.

If Jooce adds in more messaging support (GTalk being a big one) and the planned integrated email as well as resolves some of the system-intensive performance issues on slower machines, they may end up at the front of the pack. Their Webware 100 nomination was well-deserved.