Netscape Revenge? Or Just Another Browser?

For those of us who have been using the web for awhile, we are familiar with the browser Netscape. Netscape was the vehicle that many of us used to first venture onto the World Wide Web. We also know the story on how Microsoft killed off Netscape, not by having a superior product, but by providing Internet Explorer for free and incorporating it as a part of Windows. But that was some time ago and things have changed.

Mozilla with their Firefox browser showed us that ca new browser could gain market share away from Internet Explorer. Apple followed with their own browser called Safari, Google with Chrome and also others like Opera are trying to put a dent in the once impenetrable browser market. Now along comes the founder of Netscape, Marc Andreessen, who is backing a new start up with a new browser.

Over at the N.Y. Times they state they following:

Mr. Andreessen appears to want a rematch. Now a prominent Silicon Valley financier, Mr. Andreessen is backing a start-up called RockMelt, staffed with some of his close associates, that is building a new Internet browser, according to people with knowledge of his investment.

“We have backed a really good team,” Mr. Andreessen said in an interview earlier this summer. A moment later, Mr. Andreessen appeared to regret his comment, saying he was not ready to talk about any aspect of the company.

But Mr. Andreessen suggested the new browser would be different, saying that most other browsers had not kept pace with the evolution of the Web, which had grown from an array of static Web pages into a network of complex Web sites and applications. “There are all kinds of things that you would do differently if you are building a browser from scratch,” Mr. Andreessen said.

This could change how we interact with the Internet:

But the latest battle was also prompted by a giant shift in computing that is increasingly making the Web, not the PC, the place where people interact with complex software applications. Technology giants now see the browser as a control point to what users do online, and they want a say in shaping it.

This is where companies like Google envision a world in which the user needs only a browser to access the Internet and do their work. No longer will we be saddled with a bloated operating system just to check our email. Will this new type of browser operated computer be for everyone? I doubt it since most businesses will be reluctant to make the switch.

But for many of us consumers, a browser only system could work just fine.

What are your thoughts?

Comments welcome.

Source.