On Christmas Day, visits to Facebook in the U.K. outstripped visits to Google for the first time ever. Don't look for it to last, though:
The rise in Facebook use would suggest that UK Internet users were more interested in connecting with their friends and family, updating them with stories of presents and how much food they ate. Google can expect an increase in searches in the coming days as people try to work out the best apps for their iPads or Android devices.
Oddly enough, though the upstart has just been cited as the 3rd largest site in the world, displacing Yahoo. Number one Google and number two Microsoft may not be holding onto those slots much longer, either, as Marc Andreesen and his team have put together Rockmelt - a browser designed specifically to interface with Facebook.
Rockmelt is fast and seamless when accessing Facebook data, and robust when accessing other sites as well. I've been using it in beta for a month or two, and it appears to update itself as new extensions are tested. If anything, it seems to move faster with increased use.
History: While a student at University of Illinois, Andreesen built (with assistance) MOSAIC, which became the first browser for the web. MOSAIC became Netscape, and the browser wars were officially underway. The vehemence of discourse between supporters of Netscape and Internet Explorer was similar to that often experienced when discussing Apple vs. P.C. platforms.
Eventually, Microsoft went on to dominate, largely because its I.E. browser was integrated into the operating system. Netscape went away, and re-evolved as Mozilla. While there are several browsers today, I.E. still dominates; although some users run Mozilla's Firefox, Apple's Safari, and/or Google's Chrome, I.E. and its variants (Slimbrowser, Maxthon) still top the U.S. market.
The advent of a new browser, optimized for Facebook, seems rather an ominous development for Microsoft and for Google.
Google's Chrome is excellent and multifunctional, but it isn't optimized (as yet) for Google sites. Should that occur, one has to wonder whether the next generations of browsers will all be optimized for specific sites (while allowing access to other sites).
