History
Expertcity, Inc. was founded in 1997 by UCSB Professor Klaus Schauser and graduate students Bernd Oliver Christiansen and Malte Muenke. Investors included Sun Microsystems, ZDNet, Bertelsmann Ventures, and Wit Capital.
The company went live with a web-based marketplace for technical support services, called Expertcity, in December, 1999. A user of the service would submit a technical support question through a simple webform and receive Dutch auction bids from online experts to resolve the problem. Upon selecting one of the experts, the user would be connected to him via a chat interface and, optionally, via desktop sharing, whereby the expert could see the user's screen and remotely control the user's mouse and keyboard. This "remote desktop" technology formed the kernel of later products for Citrix Online.
Expertcity discontinued their support marketplace service on January 1, 2002 by transferring it to Tech24, Inc. Tech24 subsequently phased out the service and transitioned to phone-based support.
The remote desktop technology behind the support marketplace enabled additional products. June 2000 saw the debut of DesktopStreaming (now GoToAssist), a corporate product that lets companies use desktop sharing for technical support between their own customers and support representatives. GoToMyPC, which allows a user to remotely access his or her own desktop, followed in early 2001.
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