Rockmelt. A new browser for social sharing.
Re-imagined for how you use the Web.
Rockmelt is a social web browser deeply integrated with both Facebook and Twitter with it’s “edges” which are filled with friends that are online and feeds that you follow.
RockMelt does more than just navigate Web pages. It makes it easy for you to do the things you do every single day on the Web: share and keep up with your friends, stay up-to-date on news and information, and search. Its FAST, secure, and stable because it’s built on Chromium, (the open source project behind Google’s Chrome browser.)
Your World Built into Your Browser
No more wading through each site’s goofy share widget or copy-pasting URLs. They built sharing directly into the browser, right next to the URL bar.
Like a site or story? Click “Share” –BOOM – link shared. You can use it post any site/page to Facebook or tweet about it on Twitter. It’s just one click away.
In the meantime, enjoy the phototastic show…and get an invite which are driven through your Facebook friends (I have 3, ask me!) because this experience is not to be missed!
click on all images to enlarge them
Customize your privacy settings!
And…we’re in.
Landing Page
Quick guide
The three biggest changes to the browser that you notice with RockMelt is that it is built around friends, feeds, and search results.
- The left rail is for friend.
- The right rail is for sites.
- The top rail is for search.
2 ways to SHARE on Facebook right from the browser
SEARCH right in the broswer
Connect with FRIENDS right in the browser
Get your NEWS feeds right in the browser
Twitter feed
Blog feeds
Some takeaways to consider:
1) You log in, it knows everywhere you go on the Web, who all your friends are, and what your search habits. It also knows what you share with your friends. Combine those three: social sharing, search, and actual browsing behavior, and you’ve got one hell of a way to target ads at people.
BUT according to co-founder Tim Howes, “We are not going to run an ad network. We actually don’t know where you go, that information does not leave your browser.” Lets hope so.
2) Some people can’t handle/don’t want all the constant notifications; they don’t want the added ADD element. Well, then this browser definitely isn’t for you if all the social surround sound will distract from your productivity.
3) I hope this is banned on school computers– after reading Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction, I fear it will fuel the ADD fire— hell, if the author of this article couldn’t even get through the whole thing, I’m worried for the younger generation. (admission: took me 35 minutes to read the 6 pages myself).
You can read more about Rockmelt in this awesome blog post.
Browse on. Rock on.
UPDATE 11/23 3:33pm
Another great POV from Dennis Howlett on what Rockmelt offers vs. where it may fall short found here. A must read.
Tags: broswer, facebook, Growing Up Digital Wired for Distraction, New York Times, Rockmelt, social web, Tim Howes, Twitter
Related posts:
Hexadecimal converter of life. Visual enthusiast. Storyteller. 
Nice summary!
Especially: I’m happy you highlighted the three points.
I got the invite a while ago, almost signed up and then decided to hold off. Why? Because it just seemed to want the world from me in terms of all my data in Facebook.
Now, I’m a huge huge fan of openness and sharing. And I’m a decently plugged-in, early adopter kinda guy, but something bothered me at an intuitive level.
Of course, this is just me: I’m sure others don’t mind at all.
But I’m wondering if RockMelt is just a glimpse of the future of browsing. That is, FB itself may come out with a similar feature.
Or, maybe it’s the other way around: maybe Facebook itself with become the browser. That may in fact, be Zuck’s end-game.
Nice post, Jess!
Phil