Wikipedia
Simple.com was an Application Service Provider founded by Sandro Pasquali and Carolynne Tilga in 1998. Pasquali created a Web application compatible with the Internet Explorer 4 browser and Netscape Navigator 3 and 4 which gave users the tools to launch desktop, web portal, or general web applications with the quality of responsiveness of existing desktop applications over the World Wide Web.
A full window management and application launching system existed, controlled by JavaScript code. The resulting user experience was like that one of desktop applications and not what would have been expected from traditional web applications.
Navigation was provided via a dock of icons, or via the construction of sentences. Sentence construction took the form of "I Want to" > Verb > Object > Subject, such as "I want to -buy a -book on -amazon.com" or "I want to -send an -email to -john".
Because of its application nature, content was loaded dynamically, avoiding the need for page refreshes. As such, user behavior (what is searched for, what is focused on) could be tracked over a session. As a result, technology facilitating the targeting of advertising based on user actions ( behavioral targeting) was also invented for the platform.
Simple.com was involved in several lawsuits involving its webOS invention, notably with Computer Associates and with McAfee and Associates
Simple.com may be characterized as a predecessor to the later concepts of Ajax, rich Internet applications, web desktop, etc.