3 Discoveries About Rockmelt, The Social Browser

Two weeks ago, I had never heard of Rockmelt. Then, at #bnchat, a friend asked me about it and through the course of our conversation sent me an invitation. I spent the next fours days playing around with it and these are my thoughts:

Browser Battle

At first glance, you can tell that Rockmelt is a different kind of browser. My first thought was “This is extremely cluttered, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get used to this.” That feeling faded, however.

Let’s take a look at the actual browser:

It might be hard to tell from this image, but while your favorites and browser bar are still located at the top, the two side columns are populated with social networks. From what I can tell, the left-hand column is always integrated with your Facebook friends while the right-hand column allows you to choose what populates it. (For the purpose of my exploration, I populated the right column with Twitter, LinkedIn, The Oatmeal, and Foursquare.

Both the Twitter and Facebook friends columns allow you to chat and Tweet directly from the browser without having to be logged in in either page. I really liked this feature for Facebook, but I kept ignoring the Twitter pop-ups and using Hootsuite instead.

Discovery #1: While I really enjoyed the ability to Tweet directly from the browser sidebar, Twitter clients like Tweetdeck, Seesmic and Hootsuite won’t be replaced by Rockmelt, at least not for me. The Facebook chatting, however, made it easy to continue conversations even when I navigate away from the FB homepage.

Chrome Killer?

I’ve used many different browsers in my day; from Internet Explorer, to Safari, to Firefox, and beyond. I finally landed on Chrome from Google. I know that Chrome has it’s problems, but I’ve found for my purposes, it’s darn near perfect. I still use Safari and Firefox to a degree because I like some of the things they offer, but when asked, I usually refer people to Chrome.

Why mention Chrome in a post about Rockmelt, you ask? One of the biggest downsides I saw with Rockmelt, and probably the main reason I won’t make it my default browser, was the lack of easily-accessible extensions. While it’s possible to install Chrome-like extensions into Rockmelt, they are damn near impossible to find and use.

Major Downside. (Salute)

Extensions for things outside social networks are really what make Chrome worthwhile for me. I use them every time I get online. Whether it’s my Evernote extension of my Google Reader one, that little extension bar is a great asset to me.

Discovery #2: While Rockmelt would be great for someone only interested in social sharing and networking, I missed my extensions while working on Rockmelt. The difficulty in accessing them from the browser window took away it’s claim to be the Chrome Killer for me.

RS-Yes!

For anyone thinking thusfar that I’ve been bashing Rockmelt, this section should put those fears to bed. Rockmelt’s ability to share any page and their RSS grabber feature are A-(wait for it)-MAZING.

This feature alone almost makes up for the lack of extensions, especially considering my favorite extensions in Chrome are ones that allow me to easily share pages and grab RSS feeds. As mentioned above, the right sidebar of Rockmelt can work almost like a constant Google Reader, continually updating you on favorite websites that have updates to their RSS feeds.

Since I have quite a few blogs in my Google Reader, I was only able to include my favorites, but this feature was awesome.

There’s also a “Share” button in the top navigation bar that allows you to clip and share any page you’re on to your favorite social networking sites. Again, a VERY cool addition from the guys at Rockmelt.

Discovery #3: Even without easily-accessible extensions, the RSS grabber and Share features on Rockmelt make it a heavy contender in the Browser Battles raging in the digital space today.

Rockmelt Summary

All in all, Rockmelt is a powerful browser and has a lot more interesting features that I didn’t cover in this review (ex. Search Bar Dropdown and others). I don’t see myself making it my default browser while working because of how distracting the constant influx of social media info can get, but I find myself using it more and more on the weekends when I’m not “working”.

Is Rockmelt for you? I can’t make that choice for you, but I do have a few more invitations, so if you want to test it out Friend me on Facebook, comment your interest and I’ll try to get one over to you.

If you’re looking for some other in-depth reviews on Rockmelt, check out Dragon Blogger’s Rockmelt Review or Extreme John’s 10 Reasons Rockmelt Rocks and 2 Reasons It Doesn’t. They both do a great job of talking about the features of the browser.

Have you tried Rockmelt yet? What did you think? Did I leave out anything you thought was important?

Leave those thoughts in the comments below.

[Image Credit (second image): Dragon Blogger, Hands On With Rockmelt]

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http://www.puredriven.com/blog Patrick Garmoe

Hello Joey,

I’ve been playing with Rockmelt for about a week now, and am a bigger fan than it sounds like you are, thus far. I’ve already made it my default browser on my laptop, and may do so on my main computer as well.

While I understand your qualms with extensions, I’d argue that it’s so easy to create a button to grab an RSS feed or simply create an easily accessible button on the side of your browser for things like Evernote etc., thus making in a sense you’re own “extensions.” For most users, I think they’d rather have this option than have to download all sorts of extensions and updates etc.
(You talk about this regarding RSS, which I completely agree with.)

For the average user, I think this will simplify things. I agree that it’s not a replacement for Tweetdeck or Hootsuite or anything, but it’s a browser. I don’t think the goal of Rockmelt is to be everything to everyone. Either way, I’m liking it so far.

I find myself using Facebook and Twitter etc. more often, because it is right there in my face all the time, which I think might be the ultimate goal of RockMelt.
- http://joeystrawn.com Joey Strawn
  
  Patrick, is does sound like you’ve gone more in the way of full integration with Rockmelt than I have, but I didn’t mean to give the impression that I didn’t like it. I liked what I saw but wanted to bring to light things I saw that bugged me and might bug others.
  
  Since I wrote the review I’ve used it more here and there and use it quite a bit when I’m not “working”. It can be a little distracting at times, everything being right there. All-in-all I think it’s a great browser and I’m glad to hear that you’re getting so much use out of it.
  
  Thanks for commenting and adding a solution to the extension problem. Cheers!
  - http://www.puredriven.com/blog Patrick Garmoe
    
    Hi Joey,
    I didn’t mean to suggest you weren’t a fan. I’ve just been loving it, but the sense I got from you is that you’re lukewarm/like it, which certainly is fair. Until I’ve used it for a month or more regularly, I don’t want to make any strong opinions of it. I also have a tendency to love what is shiny and new, which Rockmelt still is for me.
    
    I also agree that it can be INCREDIBLY distracting, just because everything is so “at your fingertips” but that’s kind of an issue with the web in general, RockMelt just makes the issue more acute.
    - http://joeystrawn.com Joey Strawn
      
      Yeah, I agree about it making it more acute. I have the same tendency to love the “shiny new thing” and I actually was obsessed with it the first 2 days I used it because it was so neat. I had to force myself to take a step back and analyze it from a lukewarm position (which in all honesty may have affected my review)
      
      The more I use Rockmelt, the more I like it which is a good thing and I’m glad to hear that you’re loving it so much. Who knows, I might be right there with you in a few weeks. : )
http://ariwriter.com Ari

Does the browser only succeed for people who are active using Facebook/Twitter?
- http://joeystrawn.com Joey Strawn
  
  Not necessarily, although Facebook is a pretty big part of it. When you get started, it automatically connects with your FB and integrates it into the left-hand side column. The right-hand column can be populated with pretty much any RSS feed you want, although Twitter is a popular one.
  
  The browser has a lot of good features but does seem to lean more towards people into social networks.
  
  Hope that answers your question.
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http://www.onelifethatshines.com Jackie Lee

Hi Joey,
I got an invite to rockmelt and Frank Dickinson recommended I check out this post. I’ve been leery about installing it because I don’t need any help getting distracted.

I’m wondering ~ I’ve been looking everywhere for this solution~ will it integrate facebook fan pages ~ so I can see when someone posts to my fanpage?

I think fanpages are great, but I totally forget to check in and find it difficult to stay active on them, since they don’t integrate with tweetdeck. Might this solve the problem?

Jackie
- http://www.joeystrawn.com Joey Strawn
  
  Jackie, thanks for the great question. I didn’t see it integrate specifically with the fan pages BUT, when i’m using Rockmelt, it gives me any and all updates that come through my profile (which my fan page is connected to), so I see no reason why you wouldn’t get those updates as well.
  
  The sidebar on the right will allow you to add any page that has an RSS feed so if you want to localize the FB fan page’s feed, you should be able to have that be one of your choices on the right.
  
  I hope that was helpful.
  - http://www.onelifethatshines.com Jackie Lee
    
    Cool ~ I don’t have my fanpage going through my personal account ~ so unless someone answers me directly I haven’t found an easy way to track that ~ but the RSS thing may be just the trick. I”ll have to check it out.Thanks for the fast response.
    - http://www.joeystrawn.com Joey Strawn
      
      Anytime. Be sure to let me know if that worked in case anyone else was wondering that and so I’ll know for sure.
      
      Cheers!
    - http://www.puredriven.com/blog Patrick Garmoe
      
      Hi Jackie,
      I’ve long been frustrated regarding not being able to get notified of posts to my pages. Rockmelt doesn’t solve this, but does make it easier, because you can add the RSS feed to the side of the page, as Joey says.
      
      I know a lot of search marketers who hate the fact that automatic updates of pages aren’t allowed. I’m not sure what Facebook’s rationale is about not allowing this, or whether they plan to remedy it any time soon.