Let’s take a second to ponder this: Facebook, which is already creepily obsessed with tracking your every move on the web, is apparently dying to introduce a web browser of its own, presumably to track users even more than they already are.
Pocket-lint has heard from one of its trusted sources that the social networking giant is looking to buy Opera Software, the company behind the Opera web browser.
According to our man in the know, the company could be about to expand into the browser space to take on the likes of Google, Apple, Microsoft, Mozilla and now even Yahoo, who has recently launched its own browser.
The move – which would no doubt send shivers of panic through Google – although unlikely to affect Chrome’s continued growth in the short term, would see the two tech giants battle it out on your desktop and mobile for web surfing as well as social networking.
Additionally, the New York Times reported over the weekend that the company is once again giving the development of a “Facebook phone” the ole college try.
Employees of Facebook and several engineers who have been sought out by recruiters there, as well as people briefed on Facebook’s plans, say the company hopes to release its own smartphone by next year. These people spoke only on the condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing their employment or relationships with Facebook.
The company has already hired more than half a dozen former Apple software and hardware engineers who worked on the iPhone, and one who worked on the iPad, the employees and those briefed on the plans said.
Man, a browser AND a smartphone — that’d make for some hella good stalking right there!