It is staffed largely with former Netscape, America Online and Time Warner engineers and is funded by executives from Microsoft, Netscape Communications and Google. None of the information actually resides in our computers. All we do is facilitate the process. The Mountain View, Calif., company will be Web-based, in the sense that anyone who wants to sell or buy something will go through the Lightshare site to make the transaction.
Analysts have yet to see the service in action.
The company will not launch for a few weeks at best, but will probably wait longer while it completes a first official round of funding, its executives say. But some analysts are retaining a high level of skepticism. It seems like it could be opening up a Pandora's box of fraud and piracy. Thus, instead of downloading files from a Web site, surfers can actually search other computers' drives and connect directly to these other machines for downloads. But while the idea has certainly grabbed headlines and investors' attention in the past few months, it has yet to show any signs of profitability.