The Browser landed yesterday in artificial Palm Desert, CA for DEMO 2007, one of the few must-visit annual tech conferences. Over the next two days, 68 companies will each be given six minutes to unleash their revolutionary new technology upon the world - or at least upon industry heavies like the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg. The parade began early this morning Pacific time, and thusfar we have two words for you: video email.

That's right, of the first 15 companies, Eyejot, a company which hopes to merge "the best of email with video chat" was the most sexy. Briefly, Eyejot is a web-based video email system. If you have a webcam, you an send a video email to anyone. True, you might be able to do this now by embedding video files in, say, your Outlook email, but it would require some serious cutting and pasting. On first glance, the free Eyejot web-driven app makes the whole process as simple as creating a text email. Very cool too is the fact that the video messages can be added to things like MySpace pages or viewed on Apple's (AAPL) video iPod.

Bottom line: When you see it, you can easily imagine the entire world of email moving from text to video. In fact, it's perhaps the enormous potential of the thing that could prove most problematic for the tiny company. At present, their app does not integrate with any of the existing email tools -- users have to create their own free Eyejot webmail accounts. And there's no reason to believe that heavyweights like Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), or Yahoo (YHOO) couldn't simply add video to their existing webmail systems. Then again, one of them could also simply acquire a small, enterprising video email outfit.....

Also, very impressive from the early lineup:

• Shipwire: A web-based service that promises to lift the burden of warehousing and shipping from small companies.
• Jaman: Think YouTube, but with almost high-def feature films sourced from all over the world. Jaman is built on two good ideas: First, the company is pushing the notion of "social cinema." The service lets viewers comment upon feature films and store favorites, just as they would with amateur YouTube shorts. Second, Jaman is going after the wider world of film that exists beyond the confines of highly negotiated Hollywood distribution contracts. Said Jaman CEO Gaurav Dhillon, "Less than 1% of all films in the world get distributed in the U.S." Dhillon aims to distribute, online, some big chunk of the other 99% - and for the low, low price of $1.99 to rent or $4.99 to buy. It's a cool product, and once you see the Jaman viewer/browser, you begin to think that a closed tool like iTunes is missing the Web 2.0 movement entirely.
• The big boys: In addition to the many small start-ups running around, there are some real adult companies here. This morning Adobe (ADBE) demonstrated its nifty Apollo tool, and Symantec (SYMC) presented its Identity Inititative, both the sort of complex but very promising efforts that it takes deep pockets to pursue.

Stay tuned for more on these companies, and all the rest, in the next 36 hours. And for further insights, check out Business 2.0 star Michael Copeland's Dawn Patrol blog.