

Rockmelt: A browser built to be bought (by Facebook) - radicaldreamer
http://suyashs.com/rockmelt-a-browser-built-to-be-bought-by-face

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user24
Oh please no.

Taking this to its logical conclusion, we'll end up with a facebook browser, a
youtube browser, a wikipedia browser and so on.

The great thing about the web is that _one program_ can access the whole
thing.

Now you're suggesting it would be cool if I had a browser for every website I
visit? No thanks! Not at all! Go away!

It would be a horrifically detrimental trend if websites started producing
their own browsers.

It would also be a sign that there's something wrong with the web - that the
current standards fail in some major way.

You say that:

> The bigger picture though is that Facebook needs to have a desktop presence
> that it controls.

Why? You don't say what advantage this would have. You talk about "Facebook to
become a part of your browsing _experience_ rather than a just a destination
online."

What do you mean by that? Doesn't deep integration between websites and
facebook via the like button do that? Isn't that a better way forward for
facebook?

Open is the new closed.

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radicaldreamer
For Facebook Apps. You don't think Facebook would just stand by while
FarmVille etc. started being sold in the Chrome App Store and the Safari App
Store, would you?

I never said it would be cool, I just think it's where I think we're headed.

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user24
So your theory is:

    
    
      Facebook make money from apps.
    
      If apps are sold in browser web stores, that's money Facebook are missing out on.
    
      Therefore Facebook need their own browser.
    

I would say:

    
    
      Facebook make money from apps.
    
      If apps are sold in browser web stores, that's money Facebook are missing out on.
    
      Therefore Facebook need their own App Development API
      which pushes out to all browsers.

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radicaldreamer
Which is the way it is right now.

But isn't it much more compelling for Facebook to have a development platform
which they control and can make as uniform as possible? Big companies tend to
want to control the core technology behind their businesses.

A quick and recent example: you can no longer play FarmVille out of the box on
a new Macbook Air.

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ithkuil
does it mean I need a facebook account in order to sign up for the beta?

~~~
radicaldreamer
Right now, you do need a Facebook account to sign up for the beta:

<http://twitter.com/#!/rockmelt/status/1524230806052864>

