This is healthy, better competition on the browser market should result in the platform becoming solid. I'm hoping we don't see the fragmentation that we saw in the OS market. This time round it looks more like a race: at least while the standards are ahead.
Isn't this a little like Active Desktop meets flock?
The Wall Street Journal articles quotes the founders to deny that it is a Facebook browser. The thing that makes the most sense is a browser that like Google chrome has a lot of HTMl5 hooks so it can do normal operating system activities like File Management.
Looks like Andreesen is at it again. He's got the experience, the name, and ofcourse the cash to make a BIG impact in the browser world. Has learned from the mistakes he made with hit browser, NETSCAPE, and from the "browser wars" with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. He's got some big competiton in the search engine world though, with ofcoruse Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. But, I think he can get it done. Check it out at http://www.rockmelt.com. Really cool logo. See any resemblence to the Netscape logo?
Also, webkit (Chrome & Safari) seems to render the background JPEG in a slightly browner color than Firefox (on Mac OS X) - which is different from the page background. Design geeks these guys are not.
For a while it seemed that Facebook had killed Parakey, except for the redesign that made Facebook look more operating system like. I think the browser war is still relatively wide open assuming the eventual crash of Microsoft. Whatever these guys make is going to be interesting.
I just can't picture people choosing this browser simply because it integrates with facebook.