Can Upstart Browser From RockMelt Cut It?

[engine]

According to an ariticle in the New York Times, Rockmelt is a new company building a new browser from scratch.

It's in the very early stages of development, however, the company feel thay will have an advantage.

Can Upstart Browser From RockMelt Cut It? [nytimes.com]

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.

[tedster]

When the "upstart" has backing from Marc Andreessen (who developed the original Netscape browser) then it's worth keeping an eye on.

[JAB Creations]

Realistically, how is this different from Flock? I've heard it's just a tie-in to certain sites (possibly Facebook in example). The technology for the web platform already exists; we don't need another new browser, we need to see the related bugs in the existing browsers fixed!

- John

[D_Blackwell]

Can Upstart Browser From RockMelt Cut It?

No. Even with 'keeping pace with evolution' and 'building from scratch' - if 70%, 80%, or more of users have IE - no way. There are good browsers out there. FF blew Opera's chance out of the water by giving the average user control and power to have a browser that worked for them. Opera was designed to be a powerful tool for geeks only. If they don't botch it - FF can continue to gain ground. Microsoft continues to give the users as little consideration as they can get away with.

[tedster]

It all depends what you mean by "cut it". If you mean become the #1 or #2 browser in the world - no, probably not.

But if you mean build a profitable browser business that also has an important influence on web technology - then yes, absolutely. You don't need to be king of the hill to be "cutting it". The world and the web are more complex places than a simple horse race.

also, let's not forget, Andreesen has a history of successful business ventures - and he also watched while MS introduced the IE browser and undermined Netscape which was at the time a runaway success.