The Web has changed a lot since Marc Andreessen revolutionized the Internet with the introduction of his Netscape browser in the mid-1990s. That’s why he’s betting people are ready to try a different Web-surfing technique on a new browser called RockMelt.
The browser, available for the first time yesterday, is built on the premise that most online activity today revolves around socializing on Facebook, searching on Google, tweeting on Twitter and monitoring a handful of favorite Web sites. It tries to minimize the need to roam from one Web site to the next by corralling all vital information and favorite services in panes and drop-down windows.
“This is a chance for us to build a browser all over again,” Andreessen said. “These are all things we would have done [at Netscape] if we had known how people were going to use the Web.”
Andreessen didn’t develop the RockMelt browser the way he did Netscape, whose early popularity waned as Microsoft Corp bundled its Internet Explorer browser with the Windows operating system.
RockMelt is the handiwork of Tim Howes and Eric Vishria, who formerly worked with Andreessen, but Andreessen’s seal of approval has been stamped on the startup.
Howes is RockMelt’s chief technology officer, while Vishria is the chief executive.
The biggest chunk of RockMelt’s US$10 million in funding has come from the venture capital firm that Andreessen runs with his partner, Ben Horowitz.
Andreessen also sits on RockMelt’s board of directors, and his advice has been called upon frequently.
“When you are trying to reinvent the Web browser, who would you rather run your ideas by besides Marc?” Howes said.
Facebook’s imprint is also all over RockMelt, although the two companies’ only business connection so far is Andreessen.
He also serves on Facebook’s board of directors.
RockMelt only works if you have a Facebook account. That restriction still gives RockMelt plenty of room to grow, given Facebook has more than 500 million users.
After Facebook users log on RockMelt with their Facebook account information, the person’s Facebook profile picture is planted in the browser’s left hand corner and a list of favorite friends can be displayed in the browser’s left hand pane. There’s also a built-in tool for posting updates in a pop-up box.
The features extend beyond Facebook and Twitter. RockMelt includes a tool that shows results from Google searches in a drop-down box that can be scrolled through to peruse the recommended Web sites in the main part of the browser. The browser’s right-hand pane is reserved for listing favorite Web sites, with automatic notifications whenever they get fresh information on them.
RockMelt stores each user’s preferences on a remote server, making them available on any computer that has the browser installed on its hard drive.
Although its backers hail the browser as a breakthrough, RockMelt is borrowing some technology and ideas from other sources. Its foundation is built on Chromium, the same open-source coding that spawned Google Inc’s Chrome browser two years ago. Another browser called Flock has been trying to tap into the online social scene for the past five years.
No browser has come close to surpassing Internet Explorer, despite various challenges through the years. Internet Explorer still holds a roughly 60 percent market share, according to the research firm Net Applications. The Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox, which drew upon Netscape, ranks a distant second at 23 percent, followed by Chrome at about 9 percent.
RockMelt is starting off with a modest goal: It hopes to attract 1 million users as it extends invitations to people interested in trying the browser. Requests can be made through www.rockmelt.com.
Andreessen is convinced Internet Explorer’s lead remains vulnerable, even after more than a decade of domination and repeated upgrades.
“I don’t believe in mature markets,” he said. “I think markets are only mature when there is a lack of innovative products.”
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS