Adobe recently released the alpha version of a project code-named “Apollo” that will attempt to bridge the gap between the Internet and your computer desktop.

At the DEMO 07 conference earlier in this year, the senior product manager for Apollo, Mike Downey, said, “Apollo is a cross-operating system runtime that allows you to install desktop applications that are built using web technologies like HTML, JavaScript and Flash.”

Apollo is a runtime environment in which web developers will be able to create their own web applications accessible from their desktops, using familiar techniques such as Flash, Flex, JavaScript, Ajax and HTML to build them.

Downey said Apollo applications would also be able to read and write straight to a computer’s hard drive.

This technology means that eventually common tasks such as writing documents or making spreadsheets can be done on web applications that use up very little computing space.

Possibly the most attractive thing about Apollo is the small amount of computing space it occupies.

Chris Cantrell, a developer for Adobe, maintains a FAQ page on the Adobe Labs Web site.

“The target size for the Apollo runtime is 5-9 megs,” Cantrell wrote, “It is important to note that the runtime only needs to be downloaded one time.”

Once Apollo is downloaded, Cantrell wrote that developers who create applications will have complete control of everything, including the application’s appearance.

An example of an early project using Apollo is a new feature from eBay, the popular online auction Web site, called eBay Desktop. This application, which will eventually be available for free download, will allow users to access eBay from the start-up menu as an application, not within the context of a web browser.

An important feature of Apollo is the ability for the user to access web applications even when not connected to the Internet. For example, eBay Desktop will allow users to post items for sale when they are offline, something that would be impossible on any web browser.

Another helpful characteristic of Apollo is that it will be widely available, no matter what kind of operating system you are running.

Cantrell said that the alpha version of Apollo is currently available on Windows and Mac OS X, and that the full version of Apollo will be available on Linux operating systems as well.