14 DAY TRIAL // At first it was a cloud OS, a bare-bones operating system that would enable you to access the web and run web applications and not much else. Then it became a cloud app platform, enabling you to run a unified cloud desktop and a set of apps no matter where you logged in from.
Now, Jolicloud is becoming a cloud services platform, it aims to unify all of your online stuff and bring it all in a single place, your Facebook, Picasa and Instagram photos, your Google Docs documents, your friends' updates from Facebook, Google+, Twitter and so on and so forth.
The current Jolicloud actually does a lot of that already. You can install web apps, check out your files from Dropbox, keep up with your friends on social networks and so on.
In that sense, the New Jolicloud, which has just been unveiled but which is still in private beta, is not really a pivot, but an evolution, a fresh start, ditching the components that still linked it to Jolicloud OS and the previous vision.
The new Jolicloud comes with a revamped interface and is fully focused on integrating all of the various cloud services.
The company got 35,000 people to sign up for it before even revealing what it had in mind. For now, the beta Jolicloud supports Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Picasa and Twitter.
But the company plans to integrate more services, coming soon is Dropbox, Google Docs, Instapaper, Tumblr and Evernote. Jolicloud won't stop there either.
It may take a while to get there, which is why Jolicloud may stay in private beta for quite some time, as long as it takes to build something that people found compelling.
Of course, the new Jolicloud is going to rely entirely on other services and their APIs, a rather risky position. Still the company is not worried that, if the service becomes too popular, it may get shut off from the products it relies on.