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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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7

Netscape Founder Reenters Browser Battle

Details hushed on RockMelt project

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(Newser) – Stung but not discouraged by Netscape's loss to Internet Explorer in the browser battles of the 1990s, Netscape’s founder is getting back in the game, the New York Times reports. Marc Andreessen is funding a startup called RockMelt, which is developing a new browser of its own. “We have backed a really good team,” says Andreesen, now a Silicon Valley financier.

RockMelt’s software, Andreessen says, will mark a change in the browser world. Currently available browsers haven’t fully adapted to the growing potential of the web. “There are all kinds of things that you would do differently if you are building a browser from scratch,” he says. He and RockMelt’s founders are keeping quiet about details—but a now-removed privacy policy on the firm’s website suggested it will tie in with Facebook.

Marc Andreessen and wife Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen look at a cell phone during a Stanford basketball game in Palo Alto, Calif., in this Jan. 3, 2008 photo.
Marc Andreessen and wife Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen look at a cell phone during a Stanford basketball game in Palo Alto, Calif., in this Jan. 3, 2008 photo.   (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
A screen grab from RockMelt's website.
A screen grab from RockMelt's website.   (Rockmelt.com)
Web browser pioneer Marc Andreessen smiles at Opsware headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., Friday, Feb. 7, 2003.
Web browser pioneer Marc Andreessen smiles at Opsware headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., Friday, Feb. 7, 2003.   (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
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7 comments
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Sonny_Crockett
Aug 14, 09 10:16 AM CDT
Netscape was NEVA any good... pass. Reply
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-2
schmidtkoff
Aug 14, 09 10:31 AM CDT
netscape was called the "cadillac" of browsers. i never liked netscape and preferred ie. however ie is now a pile of blubber. crashes, freezing at the most inopportune moments, bloated etc. i have like mozilla firefox, my browser of choice. i would remove ie but am too afraid to do so because it would probably render my computer inoperable. good luck with the new browser - we will just have to wait and see. Reply
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+3
IN RESPONSE:
littleoopie
Aug 14, 09 11:15 AM CDT
I did try and remove IE--but IE8 on Vista keeps on coming as an urgent update. When I had it installed it immediately began causing problems. I use Firefox and doubt that I'll switch to anything else anytime soon. I liked Opera, but there were too many websites that wouldn't support it.
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+1
wwwonderer
Aug 14, 09 11:06 AM CDT
Netscape was the bomb compared to Mosaic. These were the only players in town, except for Lynx. Reply
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+2
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shonangreg
Aug 14, 09 6:58 PM CDT
No one else seems to know their history, wwwonder. And you are right, I remember setting up my accounts in about 1993, and I had to choose a browser. Everyone in the know loved Mosaic. It was doing what no other application had done (except perhaps Lynx for the few who were into navigating by text alone.) But a new competitor had just been released that looked even better than Mosaic, and that was Netscape. Sweet! .................. ANd Netscape would have provided us with something like what Google's Chrome/ChromeOS is seeking to provide now: the ability to interact with online media and data regardless of the OS. Microsoft killed Netscape to all our detriment, and they launched a public relations offensive to convince us they did it for our own good.
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