G.ho.st offers "virtual computer" product

updated: clarifying total funding

G.ho.st, the company that wants to give you a free “virtual computer” to perform most of your computer tasks from any browser, has raised $1 million more in backing.

G.ho.st is notable because it may be first joint Palestinian-Israeli technology start-up, with its development work based in the Palestinian territories. We’d written earlier the company had raised $2 million, so this new round brings it to total of $3 million. Benchmark Capital is the lead investor. VentureBeat wrote about G.ho.st last year when it was voted the most creative start-up at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco.

The company offers access to 3GB of online storage as well as email and software applications including office applications from Zoho and Thinkfree. It competes against Google, which is increasingly offering a variety of applications on the Web. MokaFive and Mojopac also offer virtual PC products.

G.ho.st’s aim is to give you access to your desktop applications from any Web browser. However, it doesn’t offer standard business software, such as Microsoft Office, so it’s more useful for younger consumers who haven’t yet locked into specific applications.

The company is in open initial testing phase (“alpha”) and expects to offer a fuller “beta” version by Halloween.

Next Story: The iPhone comes to China! Except not mainland China.
Previous Story: VMWare acquires B-hive to manage virtualized machines