Sidebars group a plurality of Internet and other services in one easily accessible location on the desktop. In one embodiment, a user's sidebar preferences, such as, for example, the types of applications modules that populate their sidebar are stored by an Internet content provider on a network server. A user can access their personal sidebar preferences from any computer with an Internet connection. In addition, in one embodiment, application module information loaded into the application modules is also stored on a server, thus changes made in a sidebar are reflected in their “full service” counterpart applications.