Netscape introduced the commercial internet browser 16 years ago and the company was sold to AOL after it lost the browser war with Microsoft 12 years ago.
Marc Andreessen, co founder of Netscape and owner of Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm, which has primarily funded RockMelt, said that it is a good time to start a company offering browsing services.
RockMelt relies on social media revolution
Andreessen said that although people spend most of their time on computers using Web browsers, they have failed to keep up with the evolution of the Web as a center for social media.
William V. Campbell, a former board member of Netscape and an advisor as well as an investor in the new company, said that RockMelt will be the browser of the Facebook era.
The company promoters acknowledge that it will be a challenge to make internet users browse through RockMelt but they had faith in their product and they hoped that it will gain popularity over a period of time.
On first look, RockMelt appears to be like any other browser with a digital windowpane onto the Web but in a corner of the main window there are two slender bars with icons, one showing the user's friends and the other showing the favorite social network sites of the user.
Easy to use features for social network users
Posting a Web page or a YouTube video or any other item on Twitter, Facebook or any other social site is made easier with a direct share button.
The right hand bar with social network list also allows users to update their status or keep abreast of their friends' activities directly from the main page. Similarly they can chat with friends and add or remove them through the left hand side bar.
While searching the Web using Google, RockMelt also displays the pages associated with the search so that the user can easily decide which pages to open.
Andreessen added that had they known about Google and Twitter or Facebook in 1992 or 93, they would have integrated these features in their browser. He viewed RockMelt as an opportunity to go back and rectify their mistakes.
RockMelt will be free for users and it proposes to earn money by charging a share of the revenue generated by the Web searches conducted by its users.
For RockMelt, the challenges are many in the browser market dominated by giants like Microsoft, Apple and Google.
The company promoters acknowledge that it will be a challenge to make internet users browse through RockMelt but they had faith in their product and they hoped that it will gain popularity over a period of time.
No comments:
Post a Comment