Rockmelt browser

RockMelt RockMelt is a relatively new internet browser that takes an interesting approach to web browsing. The browser integrates the features of popular social media websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, directly into its interface. RockMelt has all of the traditional browsing functions but with a strong emphasis on social media. While RockMelt is a good fit for Facebook fanatics and Twitter addicts, others may not be so keen on this one-of-a-kind internet browser. RockMelt was built on the Chrome platform, so it is compatible with Chrome extensions and add-ons and boasts similar, high-performing browsing speeds. The browser can initialize within four seconds and its average startup and navigation speeds are approximately the same. RockMelt also has many of the same basic features, including tabbed browsing, a built-in search engine and handy toolbar customization. The browser’s Social Reading is its standout feature. Its integration with media websites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Gmail, CNN and more provides instant news and updates in a single click. RockMelt also provides automatic sync so you can access your latest updates and stored bookmarks from any computer. As we would expect from an internet browser built on Google’s own browser, RockMelt has top-notch security features designed to keep your computer safe while browsing. The browser protects against dangerous phishing schemes and blocks harmful malware from installing on your computer. The browser’s ease of use is one area we have mixed feelings on. We like the clean, simplistic design reminiscent of Chrome, but the layout, particularly

When Rockmelt launched in 2010, analysts said it was a long shot; they were right Yahoo today acquired Rockmelt, a company that tried to compete with Google, Microsoft and Mozilla in the cut-throat browser market, but failed.According to the Wall Street Journal‘s AllThingsD blog, Yahoo paid between $60 million and $70 million for the Mountain View, Calif. company.Both Yahoo and Rockmelt posted messages announcing the acquisition on their websites.“The parallels between Yahoo! and Rockmelt are obvious: we share a common goal to help people discover the best personalized content from around the Web,” said Mike Kerns, head of social and personalization at Yahoo, and Adam Cahan, who leads the company’s mobile and emerging products group, in a joint blog post. “We can’t wait to integrate the Rockmelt technology into our platform as we work to deliver the best experiences to our users in new and exciting ways.”Rockmelt, which launched its browser as a beta in late 2010, never gained traction among users, who stuck with the bigger players — Google’s Chrome, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox — rather than take to a new browser tightly integrated with Facebook, Twitter and other social networking services.Even at its launch nearly three years ago, analysts said that Rockmelt was at best a long shot.“The odds are really stacked against them, because if they do succeed, the big browser makers will just come in and co-opt it by adding features of their own,” said Al Hilwa of IDC at the time.Ray Vales of Gartner agreed. “Having social features is not enough, given that general-purpose browsers can be extended in a similar fashion,” said Vales in 2010.The two were prescient, as Rockmelt shut down its browser in April, two years after another social networking-oriented competitor, Flock, went dark. Flock was purchased by game company Zynga

How the browser displays search results, needs improvement. When you use the search bar to browse the web, the internet browser displays the search results in a column that pops up on the side. This feels intrusive and cluttered, and we would much prefer the conventional search display that appears in its own tab. RockMelt is supplemented with a comprehensive knowledgebase but doesn’t offer much more than that in the way of help and support. There are no contact options to contact the company directly for technical assistance. There are also no community forums where you can ask questions and engage with other RockMelt users. The knowledgebase, however, is brimming with useful information, so the lack of other support options may not be too much of an issue. You can browse help topics by category or search the knowledgebase by keyword. Summary: RockMelt is certainly not for everyone. The internet browser delivers useful features and superior security, but its social media integration is not as seamless or smooth as it should be. It is a neat idea theoretically, but poor execution hinders Rockmelt’s ability to contend as a primary web browser for most users. That said, the web browser will likely appeal to social media fanatics, and if RockMelt can make some significant improvements in terms of usability, it has a good chance of becoming the default internet browser for more and more users.

As with most things on the web, the insanity surrounding the initial launch of RockMelt died down quickly. The first reactions had some people screaming “eureka!”, while others yelled “Flock 2.0!” The truth, as I see it after a few days of usage, is that the latest social web browser is somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.I know, it’s boring to say, but RockMelt neither sucks nor is it awesome. It is much better than Flock already for one very important reason: it’s about a billion times faster than Flock was. In the world of web browsing, that’s all that really matters. Flock apparently thought — well, I don’t know what Flock thought. It was just dog slow. And that was in an age when browsers themselves were much slower than they are now.There’s no doubt that a big part of RockMelt’s speed can be attributed to the Chromium web browser on which it is built. This is, of course, the same browser on which Chrome is built. And, incidentally, it is also what Flock has switched to in recent months (though it’s still lacking in several other areas). RockMelt uses a slightly older version of Chromium, but it’s still plenty fast.But the usage of Chromium is also RockMelt’s greatest weakness. RockMelt still feels very much like Chrome — it just feels like a version of Chrome with extensions installed by default. That is to say, the social element of the browser, the key to it, feels tacked-on. And that’s okay, but why couldn’t this just be an extension for Chrome? Why does it have to be a completely separate browser?I know that the social integration is deeper than it would be with an extension. When you start up RockMelt, it takes about a second longer while it signs into your Facebook account. Then it takes another few seconds (sometimes longer) to load up your social Edges with your connection to Facebook and Twitter. But I’m not seeing anything that really wows me in terms of this deeper integration.And some of the elements look kind of odd and out of place. Some of the social overlays, for example, look like they belong on Safari and not Chrome (on the Mac at least, obviously).A few weeks ago, I wrote about the possibility of Google using Chrome as their social layer and/or Facebook building their own browser. I had no idea RockMelt was about the launch, but what I wrote seems even more applicable now that it has. I can’t help but wonder if it’s going to take one of the big players to nail the social browser.Again, I go back to this feeling of these social elements in RockMelt (and Flock) being tacked-on. What we need is a browser built from the ground up with social elements in mind. That reeks of Facebook. As we’ve heard over and over again in recent weeks from the company, social is not just something you can layer on. If that applies to

In January 2011.Three months ago, Rockmelt switched from browser development to work on a Web- and mobile app-based model to deliver Internet content, somewhat like the better-known Flipboard.The Web property and apps will be switched off Aug. 31, Rockmelt said today. Between now and then, users can export their bookmarks and RSS feeds to an OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) file, the most common way of importing data into RSS readers and services like Feedly.Yahoo’s acquisition, said Kara Swisher of AllThingsD, gives the Internet giant the Rockmelt team, some of whose members have already been assigned titles at Yahoo.Rockmelt’s founders, Tim Howes and Eric Vishria, will run Yahoo’s mobile engineering and its media products group, respectively, Swisher reported. Howes was at Netscape in the late 1990s, and co-invented LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), an Internet standard for accessing directory servers. Vishria had been with Howes for several years at OpsWare, which Howes co-founded along with Marc Andreessen, who created Mosaic, the world’s first widely-used Web browser and the direct ancestor of Netscape.This article, Yahoo buys failed browser maker Rockmelt, was originally published at Computerworld.com.Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg’s RSS feed . His email address is [email protected] more by Gregg Keizer on Computerworld.com.

The web, it also applies to the web browser.Facebook undoubtedly believes Google can’t build Chrome into a social browser because of their layering mentality. But with 100 million or so users getting automatic upgrades, people would use it if Google did it. It might not be good, but people would still use it. Facebook shouldn’t underestimate that. If Facebook built their own browser, they would have to entice people to download it, just like Google had to do over the course of many months. That’s significantly harder to do then adding some social features.One of the main reasons why Chrome grew quickly was that it was simply the best browser in many peoples’ minds. A big reason for that was that it was the fastest browser. And it also lacked all the typical UI baggage that browsers tend to come with. Humorously, it lacked much of the chrome, as it were.RockMelt tacks on a bunch of the chrome. And a Google social Chrome (capital “C”) undoubtedly would too. I’m thinking a social browser will have to be an entirely new experience that melds ultra-quick browsing with social concepts. It shouldn’t be about just adding share buttons.But it’s important to remember that RockMelt is still very early in its life. The company has already issued a couple of updates to the browser to make it faster and refine a few of the features. They seem committed to iterating quickly, which is good.They also have one key advantage over Facebook if they were to build their own browser: Twitter. A Facebook browser undoubtedly would not have the option to share on Twitter. And likewise if Twitter were to build their own browser (don’t laugh, what they’re doing with the new two pane view on the site isn’t that far off from one), it wouldn’t have Facebook as an option. RockMelt, as a neutral third party, can offer both.Interestingly enough, another entrant that can offer both threw its hat into the ring today, just days after RockMelt: Mozilla. The makers of Firefox just released a Labs project called F1. It’s essentially a social add-on for Firefox that allows you to share what you’re browsing with Facebook and Twitter (and Gmail).F1 is fairly fast and it looks quite a bit nicer than RockMelt. It’s hidden until you call it, and this helps it feel less tacked-on. It also helps that it’s made by the maker of the browser itself so the design is consistant. RockMelt, again, doesn’t have that. And unless they build their own browser from scratch (something probably unfair to ask, even with Marc Andreessen’s involvement), they’re not going to have that.Incidentally, Mozilla previously worked with Chris Messina (now at Google) in late 2009 to come up with a new concept for a social browser. This type of from-the-ground-up rethinking of the whole browsing dynamic is exactly what I’m talking about. My gut tells me that this is the only way someone is going to nail the social browser.RockMelt is on the