Netscape author develops Facebook-oriented browser.

15 years ago, Marc Andreessen developed the Netscape internet browser, thanks to which millions learned what the Internet is. However, Netscape fell asleep in the Bose during the “browser war” with Microsoft in the 1990s. Now Andresensen is eager for revenge. Not the last financier in Silicon Valley, he supports the project of the company RockMelt to create a new web browser.

According to Andrissen, his brainchild will be different from other browsers, which simply do not have time for the evolution of the Web. "When a browser is created from scratch, many functions are completely different from those that exist in other browsers." The fact that the project is financed by Andrissen himself will undoubtedly draw attention to the company RockMelt. The company has not yet disclosed its plans. On the main page of the site hangs a logo depicting the globe in the cracks, in which lava is visible, apparently rising from the core to the surface. There is reason to believe that the new browser will somehow be tied to the Facebook service, led by Anderssen.

To access the RockMelt website, just enter the password for Facebook, so the browser seems to be configured to display Facebook updates. However, while RockMelt does not work with Facebook. “We don’t know the details about RockMelt and its products,” said a spokesman for Facebook. According to experts, the weak point in the promotion of new browsers is distribution. For example, despite the massive advertising of Google Chrome, he managed to win only 2 percent of the market. Harvard professor David Yoffe, the author of a book about the competition Netscape and Microsoft, believes that developing a browser for Facebook is a strategy that can “shoot”. “If you manage to convince millions of Facebook users that the new browser will provide them with completely new opportunities for communication, it will mean that the game was worth the candle,” he said.

via nytimes.com