Facebook Explorer?
The founder of Netscape, which lost out to Microsoft's Internet Explorer in the browser wars of the nineties, is backing a new web browser called Rockmelt.
Marc Andreessen is now a venture capitalist, investing in technology start-ups. He created the new VC firm earlier this year in partnership with Ben Horowitz. The two of them were the chairman and CEO, respectively of data centre automation software company Opsware when it was acquired by HP in 2007.
The NY Times is reporting that Rockmelt was founded by former Opsware executives Eric Vishria and Tim Howes, but neither they, nor their backers, seem keen on saying much about it.
However, ReadWriteWeb has got its hands on an early build of the browser that appears to show a close link between it and Facebook. Andreessen is on the board of directors of Facebook.
Both the NYT and ReadWriteWeb reckon they've seen other evidence and heard other rumours that Rockmelt and Facebook could be in cahoots. This would be consistent with Facebook's apparent desire to be more than just a social networking site, as indicated by its recent acquisition of Friendfeed.