This makes for a very interesting line of thought – Browser as social network and social network as browser. If you’re confused somewhat, then head over to RWW article on the same.

Now getting back to the point – how about this proposition:

1. Your favorite browser, be it Firefox, Chrome, Safari or if you want to consider IE acting as a social network.

2. Or your favorite social network, be it Facebook, MySpace or even Twitter acting as a browser to surf though the internet.

Now practically speaking, these two hypothesis are already being worked out. Facebook already has its own frames it uses for links shared through the site, holding the browsing experience inside the site. It’s not hard to imagine a search bar being placed inside that frame. And Firefox too is not far behind since its very much in-line to use its browser capabilities to facilitate social networks.

Now the point arises from Jeremiah Owyang‘s compelling vision of the future of browsers and social networks in his excellent report The Future of the Social Web, where he writes

“… in a bid to extend the reach of its new browser, Chrome, we expect Google to build OpenID and its associated friend connections into the browser; look for Firefox and eventually Internet Explorer to copy this feature. Facebook and MySpace will also likely build a way for users to surf the Web within the Facebook experience, retaining the social functionality. These connections won’t be perfect, but they’ll allow social networks to colonize communities and other parts of the Web, extending their experience out to other sites through the shared ID. As a result, in two years, portable identities will become a ubiquitous part of the online experience as they reach maturity“.

Now this really makes it for interesting debate whether users will opt for portability since privacy would arrive as a major concern and Facebook is already dealing with it. Also twitter’s OAuth (it’s an authentication protocol that allows users to approve application to act on their behalf without sharing their password) has yet to take off amongst prime users.

But the moot point here is web entities are trying to keep the users hooked on their system and not allow them to digress towards other web properties since that’s where the real money is.

So the fundamental point we are looking at is to develop a near experience of an operating system for the web where users can connect.