RockMelt Web Browser Faces Uphill Climb
Posted on August 14, 2009 |
Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen is busy making dozens of small bets on startups in his $300 million venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. RockMelt may emerge as one of his most intriguing investments, because of both his history as a pioneer in Web browsing and his current ties to social networking behemoth Facebook.
The New York Times reported on Friday that the Andreessen-backed startup will somehow incorporate Facebook user names in its browser, so that users could presumably interact with their friends on the social network while they’re surfing around the Web. Andreessen currently sits on Facebook's board, but the newspaper reports that Facebook is not explicitly connected to the project. That wouldn’t prevent RockMelt from tapping into the social network's API, a code that makes Facebook data available to other Web sites and services.
What makes Andreessen think the market will support another Web browser? Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still owns the lion’s share, 68%, of the market, though Mozilla’s Firefox continues to steadily gain ground with 22%, according to data tracker Net Applications. The next two most used browsers, Safari and Chrome, have yet to surpass 10% market share combined, but Apple and Google are investing heavily in those products.
