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It can be hard to give somebody directions over the phone for how to use, say, a computer software program (example, via my mom: “Which button am I supposed to click on?”). CrossLoop offers a downloadable desktop-based application that lets you access and use another person’s computer interface, and let them watch what you do to help.

This is peer-to-peer data transmission technology for business. The company’s web site includes profiles for help specialists, including rankings given by users they’ve helped. The software is a potential way to make money for people with some technical expertise. Helpers offer their services for a fee, typically for between $5 and $50 dollars an hour. Right now, CrossLoop just offers a Paypal payment feature so helpers can provide their services and keep all of the money, but eventually the company plans to take a cut of these fees.

So far, 11,500 specialists from more than 130 countries have created 2.8 million help sessions. CrossLoop has had a million unique users since it launched in 2006, for a total of 53 million “help” minutes served. It says it’s seeing “good growth”.

The Campbell, Calif. company just closed a $6 million round led by Venrock, with existing investor El Dorado Ventures participating. Andre Haddad, chief executive of Ebay’s Shopping.com, and Venrock’s Rich Moran have joined the company’s board.

CrossLoop, a company that allows two people to share their computer desktops, has launched an online marketplace where you can find experts to help you with a wide range of (mostly computer-related) topics.

We’ve already written about how CrossLoop is really useful for giving tutorials, since a teacher can not only look over a student’s shoulder, but also interact with their computer desktop. There are a lot of web conferencing tools out there (even free ones, like Dimdim), but CrossLoop focuses on teaching, not business meetings. You can see that focus in some of its features — it doesn’t bother with the usual conferencing features like a whiteboard — and you can also see it in the Monterey, Calif. startup’s recent moves. At first, CrossLoop just provided the sharing technology. But at the end of last year, it started allowing “helpers” to create profiles, so you could find out more about someone before giving them access to your computer. There are now more than 5,000 helpers on CrossLoop who have held more than 1.5 million help sessions, says co-founder Mrinal Desai.

The help marketplace, where you can search for and compare different tutors, is a logical next step. It also answers the question we’ve been asking: How is the company going to make money? Desai envisions the marketplace as a kind of eBay for tutorials and tech support — with CrossLoop taking its cut of the money made, of course. Not only can users search for a helper and look at their profile (see screenshot below), they can also rate their tutor after the session, and other users can make decisions based on a tutor’s reputation.

Even though the marketplace is at the heart of CrossLoop’s business plan, it’s entirely free for now, Desai says. The goal is to continue building a user base, then eventually start charging a fee for each deal. Desai says the marketplace should be a place where users can find both big tech support companies like Best Buy’s Geek Squad and small “mom and pop” operations, which are little more than a single person giving advice in his or her spare time. There are plenty of other tech support sites, like Support.com, and even support marketplaces like SupportSpace, but CrossLoop’s sharing technology should be a big draw.

In fact, the basic version of CrossLoop’s technology will remain free. Desai says it’s fine if some — or even most — tutors just use the technology to do business outside of the marketplace. Even if that deprives the startup of some revenue, it also leads to greater CrossLoop adoption, and will eventually draw more paying customers.

CrossLoop, a company that lets two people easily share their desktops while working in different locations, has raised $3 million in a first round of capital.

We’ve covered CrossLoop before (see our coverage). This is great for giving tutorials, for example. CrossLoop lets you reach virtually into your student’s screen, even though they’re working miles away from you, and control their cursor, open their files, and do anything they can do on their own computer. That’s all fine if they trust you. It’s scary for them, though, if they don’t, but then CrossLoop gives them a dashboard that lets them shut down your access at any time.

The challenge for CrossLoop is to stay above the noise created by the multitude of companies (see one list here) offering online Web conferencing tools, some of them with very similar features.

Yugma, for example, offers a service that lets people take over each other’s screens. However, Yugma’s free version doesn’t offer this. You have to pay $10 a month, but with this comes several other features, including planning online meetings, recording sessions, and highlighting features. Only one of the two people communicating needs to buy Yugma’s software, since they can connect with someone who has the free version, and can manage the controls from their end. Minneapolis, Minnesota’s Yugma has about $2.5 million in angel funding. Both Yugma and Crossloop let you transfer files too. They both require downloads.

A few months ago, we heard that eBay’s Skype was negotiating a partnership with Yugma, because Skype’s own feature, called Unyte, doesn’t support Linux/Mac like Yugma does. Skype wouldn’t comment. Otherwise, Unyte offers similar features to Crossloop and Yugma. Skype also offers something called Convenos, but like many other competing products, it offers Web-based collaboration and so doesn’t allow access to desktop.

Back to CrossLoop. It’s hard to tell how the company will make money, since the basic version is free. For now, chief executive Lisa Alderson says the company is focused on getting users, and that it’s too early to talk about the company’s revenue plans. CrossLoop’s advantage is that it’s interface is very easy to understand.

Since launching last year, more than 300,000 people have used the software, she said (Yugma reports a similar number of users, though for both companies the number of “active” users is significantly lower). A paid version of Crossloop lets you manage a history of your sessions on your desktop.

The funding comes from El Dorado Ventures. CrossLoop is based in Pacific Grove, Calif.

A demo of how CrossLoop works is below (RSS readers won’t be able to see it).

updated

Crossloop, the company that lets two people share their computer screens over the Web, has released new feature that lets them transfer unlimited files freely between their computers.

We first wrote about Crossloop here, and noted this is useful for people who want to train others remotely. Young Web-savvy people wanting to teach elderly relatives how to find an obscure camera or printing device drive, for example, can take control of the computer screen of those relatives and show them exactly where it is.

Allowing file transfers takes this computer sharing to a whole new level.

Today, the Monterey, Calif. company has launched an upgrade with several new features, the most compelling of which is such file sharing — it allows an unlimited transfer of data for free. We tested it, and it worked great — for the most part. We tried transferring six different sets of files, and it worked except for once when they got stuck. When we tried those transferring those files again, to worked. It is in a testing phase, and we’re assuming the bug will be fixed. It also did not work once when we tried to host a session from a hot-spot in Starbucks; we’re assuming this had something to do with T-Mobile’s hot-spot configuration for the Starbucks chain.

It’s simple to use. You download the application (access is limited, but Crossloop has let VentureBeat users download from here; use the username “xlbeta” and password “filetransfer”). As discussed last time, you get a little box on your screen (see above) with a code you share with the person wanting to join you on your computer. Once the other person is connected, they can click on the file folder icon (see arrow), and Crossloop lets them select files on the computer to transfer to their own computer. Alternatively, they can just drag and drop files sitting on your desktop into the box. Crossloop prompts each of the two people to give permission for the transfer to go through.

Also, if you can stop the other person from having access to your files by clicking on the keyboard icon next to the folder icon. You can also flip the session, and take over the other person’s screen by clicking on the green-red arrow icon next to the keyboard icon. During these sessions, either party can move the cursor.

The gear icon provides help and other information about the session.

The product is designed to be usable by anyone.

It is based on peer-to-peer technology, and offers quick transfer speed. Crossloop uses its own servers if, for some reason, a direct peer connection can’t be made.

There’s no clear way this will make money, as far as we can tell. Crossloop’s VP of Business Development, Mrinal Desai tells us his focus is getting the service adopted, and then he hopes to charge for premium features, such as giving people control over the box colors and logo.

We should note that other services, such as GoToMyPC and LogMeIn allow users to share computer screens and share files. However, they charge significantly for the privilege of sharing files. LogMeIn costs $99 per person per month to transfer files. GoToMyPC charges even more (clarification: GoToMyPC charges more for its full support version, but charges less than LogMeIn for its basic file transfer).

It works in 21 languages, and is encrypted with 128-bit technology.

CrossLoop is a new start-up that lets two people meet online to share their computer screens.

It is handy for those of us who have parents needing instruction on their computers - it lets us help them easily from afar. It’s also a useful tool for training people, for example in how to use software.

Its magic is in its simplicity. Other services do this. Microsoft, for example, offers a service with XP Pro, and there are a couple of geek-popular sites that allow this. But Crossloop makes things easy for the rest of us: First, it is free. Second, anyone can use it, because it figures out how to automatically tunnel through firewalls and other software obstacles.

More than ten thousand people have downloaded the Monterey, Calif. company’s software since it launched this month, says VP of biz development, Mrinal Desai.

Desai took VentureBeat through the demo. I go to Crossloop.com, download the software, and then I get a box on my screen (see image at left). I select the “join” tab, which means I’ll be joining Mrinal on his desktop. I type in the code he gives me (he has to be on the phone to give me the code, which is security step #1), and then he is prompted with question about whether he really wants to let me access his desktop (security step ##2). He accepts, and then I’m on his desktop.

The first thing I did was to go to his email, and threaten to open up the file about his company’s traffic numbers (see screenshot at bottom). He begged me to stop. Then I noticed he was flying out to New York to demo to the WSJ’s Walt Mossberg. Ha! We’ve scooped Mossberg once again. In other words, access to such senstive information means this tool should be used with caution.

Mrinal, in this example, clicked on the “host” tab, because he hosted me. He already had the software downloaded. The “host” tab automatically generated the 12 random digit code. It does so each time the a connection is initiated (security step #3). See image here for what the host status box looks like.

Crossloop wants to make money by adding features down the line. File transfers are an obvious starting point. The trick will be how Crosslink will emerge from “feature” status into a full-fledged company.

The company has raised $650,000 in a seed round. Investors include Jay Lorenzen, a serial entrepreneur and former chief executive of Shop.com. Chief executive is Thomas Rolander, first employee at Digital Research and author of the multi-tasking operating system.

Joanne Bradford, the software giant’s top ad-sales and marketing executive, moves to take over MSN, Microsoft’s portal and focal point for its Internet properties branded “Live.”

Live badly needs some focus, because most people are confused about what it really stands for, what is part of Live and what isn’t, and whether it matters. VentureBeat was first to report that a major reshuffle was coming, and now its official. AdAge has the summary of all the other executive changes in this latest overhaul:

The idea was that by consolidating its ad sales, not only for MSN.com but also for other web-based applications like Xbox Live, Windows Live and Office Live, Microsoft was signaling it was serious about becoming a big media player

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