Shared applications including shared applications that permit retrieval, presentation and traversal of information resources

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• receiving at an appliance, and from a centralized service provider as part of collaboration amongst multiple appliances in which a shared application is shared using a corresponding workspace of the centralized service provider, a message including aspect ratio data associated with the shared application, the aspect ratio data pertaining to a view of the shared application that is stored at the centralized service provider, wherein the collaboration is configured to simultaneously support a plurality of applications including the shared application;
• using the aspect ratio data to display a view of the shared application that is stored at the centralized service provider in a manner that preserves the aspect ratio associated with the shared application at the appliance, wherein the shared application is received as streamed video, wherein aspect ratio data allows scaling of the shared application and wherein aspect ratio data may be applied to each of the plurality of applications to enable translation of coordinates of the container;
• receiving user input at a location relative to the display of the view of the shared application;
• and
• sending information associated with the received user input to the centralized service provider effective to cause the user input to be applied at a corresponding location of the shared application being executed at the centralized service provider.

A computing device comprising:

• one or more processors;
• one or more computer-readable media;
• computer-readable instructions stored on the one or more computer-readable media which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause performance of operations comprising:
• receiving a message that indicates that a shared application that permits retrieval, presentation and traversal of information resources is to be created as part of a collaboration amongst multiple appliances, wherein the computing device is not one of the multiple appliances participating in the collaboration, wherein the collaboration is configured to simultaneously support a plurality of applications including the shared application;
• responsive to receiving the message, instantiating a container at the computing device, the container being configured to execute the shared application;
• using the container to cause the shared application to be shared with the multiple appliances as streaming video, the using including transmitting aspect ratio metadata associated with the shared application to at least some of the multiple appliances to preserve an associated aspect ratio across the multiple appliances when the shared application is shared while allowing scaling of the shared application for each of the multiple appliances, wherein the aspect ratio metadata is applied to each of the plurality of applications to enable translation of coordinates at each of the multiple appliances and coordinates of the container;
• receiving a message from one of the multiple appliances, the message describing location information at which user input was received relative to the streamed video shared application on said one of the multiple appliances;
• using the location information to apply the user input at a corresponding location of the shared application being executed at the computing device;
• after using the location information, capturing a view of the shared application being executed at the computing device;
• and
• sharing the captured view with the multiple appliances.