Webaroo founders Brad Husick and Rakesh Mathur started their new company two years ago with a bold idea: what if you could surf the Web without being connected to the Internet?

I profile the company today, with Husick saying "it was sort of a strange, audacious, crazy question to ask." Webaroo works by scouring thousands of Web sites and then storing the most relevant ones on a mobile computer's hard drive. That means a person could read their favorite Web sites wherever they wander -- a flight to Tokyo, a London hotel or a dog sledding vacation in northern Alaska.

As I point out in today's story, Webaroo does have some limitations. Because users are not connected to the Internet, there is no way to receive real-time information like stock quotes or buy goods from e-commerce providers. It also does not have the ability at this time to store online video -- one of the more intriguing applications.

The Bellevue company -- whose founders previously started Junglee, NetGravity and eLance -- has generated plenty of attention in its first day. See The New York Times, BBC News and The Times of London.