RockMelt — Right Browser, Wrong Platform?

waderoush writes "A detailed Xconomy software review concludes that the new RockMelt browser is a labor-saver for heavy users of the desktop social Web, but it doesn't fully deliver on the startup's promise to build a browser 'designed around you and how you use the Web.' That's because the social Web is less and less about the PC desktop, and more about mobile platforms and appliances like smartphones, tablets, and Internet-connected TVs. What's missing today is software that can help bridge the gap: 'I'm not really looking for more reasons to spend time using my desktop browser,' the review states. 'Rather, I'm busy offloading as many old PC-centric tasks as I can to my other devices. It's nice to have better integration between Facebook, Twitter, news feeds, search, and standard Web content on the desktop. But what's really needed right now is better integration between the desktop social Web and the mobile social Web.'"

Designed around you and how you use the Web

[ickleberry]

It's nice to have better integration between Facebook, Twitter, news feeds, search, and standard Web content on the desktop. But what's really needed right now is better integration between the desktop social Web and the mobile social Web

Its designed how they and possibly some other people use the web. There are plenty of people out there who don't give two shits about Facetube and Twitbook integration.

This is a very niche market, I don't see too many people using Flock either. This is, dare I say it a browser for Arts students.

Re:

[somersault]

I signed up to at least have a look at it, but they only have releases for OSX and Windows, and the Windows version doesn't work on WINE..

Re:Designed around you and how you use the Web

[eln]

The two people that use Twitter and Facebook regularly and also use WINE will be devastated by this news.

Re:

[aitmanga]

The three people that use Twitter and Facebook regularly and also use WINE will be devastated by this news.

FTFY since I use Facebook and Twitter regularly and my home laptop runs Fedora 14.

Re:

[somersault]

Yeah, I don't even like Twitter tbh :p Facebook is occasionally useful and/or fun.

Re:

[cobrausn]

According to their promor video though, their integration with YouTwitFace appears to be one of their primary features.

Spelling Correction

[cobrausn]

*promo

Re:

[rthille]

You've got reading comprehension problems. Or maybe just font problems. That's a lower-case 'l' (ell), not a capital 'I' (eye).

That is, it's "Rock Melt", not "Rock Me It". Having had some geology classes, it made perfect sense to me. Rock Melt is where multiple different source rocks are mixed and compressed and melted together, like FaceTubeTwitter out of the big 3 that the browser it targeting...

Re:

[Beerdood]

I don't get the name of this browser. Why the fuck is it called "Rock Me It"? What the fuck does the phrase "rock me it" even mean?

It sounds like the sort of broken English I'd heard dumbasses down in Arkansas and Alabama speaking, back when I had the misfortune of doing some contract work over there.

Well duh, the "it" is for IT - information technology, not "it" the pronoun. Sounds like a good premise - I really don't find that putting time into database management, web hosting, consulting and hardware management are really "rocking me". I find it rather bores me, or maybe even sucks the life out of me. But if these guys can deliver on their promise to provide some sort of information technology that really rocks me - wow! They'll be billionaires in no time! Not sure what they have to offer - mayb

Re:

[Jettamann]

they had to settle for RockMeLt, because if they named it RockMeAmadeus they would risk the jinks of being another one hit wonder!

Re:

[wondafucka]

It's nice to have better integration between Facebook, Twitter, news feeds, search, and standard Web content on the desktop. But what's really needed right now is better integration between the desktop social Web and the mobile social Web

Its designed how they and possibly some other people use the web. There are plenty of people out there who don't give two shits about Facetube and Twitbook integration. This is a very niche market, I don't see too many people using Flock either. This is, dare I say it a browser for Arts students.

I hate to break it to you, but *you* are now the niche market. Engineers, Programmers, and IT are no longer the driving force of the internet. Young people with social lives are, and this is the sort of thing that they like and will be a money magnet. Someday soon, you will hear someone say "Oh, Firefox? I don't see too many people using that. Isn't that the browser for people with Aspergers?"

The "Detail-Averse"

[presidenteloco]

Humans =
                Programmers / Engineers / Mathematicians / Scientists (5% ?)
          + The "Detail-Averse" (aka "users" aka "consumers") (95% ?)

Thus the success of blog technology, facebook etc when
a "home page" and a 2-page HTML 1.0 manual arguably should
have sufficed.

Re:

[blair1q]

I dunno. If I could identify a market segment of 500 million people all of whom are likely to have two things in common (they use a browser and they log into facebook), I'm going to think of a way to make those two things work better together, and not worry about anyone who wasn't going to give me money, anyway.

An analogy: in order to be as successful as James Cameron was when he made Avatar, he only needed to convince 200 million people to part with the price of a movie ticket. That's about 3% of the po

Out of my way

[falldeaf]

Regardless of the utility of the social aspects of RockMelt, I'm mostly not on board because I like it when I barely even notice my browser. It's really not my focus when I'm browsing the web and I don't want it to be. Chrome is doing it right at the moment. Minimal gui 'chrome', even the kicker bottom on the bottom is gone, which is nice. If you mouseover a URL only then does any semblage of a kicker panel appear. With the direction JS and specifically libraries like JQuery are taking things, who needs clu

No lizard, no Spock?

[countSudoku()]

RockMelt
PaperBurn
ScissorsCut
LizardRun
SpockSmart

What did I win?!

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

You won another year of living in your mother's basement, fantasizing about what a nude woman looks like in real life.

RockMelt would make a great App

[rsborg]

It's built on a browser, but really, if it went laser-focus on just social sites and the such, it would make a good companion, especially if it gave the option to load the links in other browsers.

I would never use it because I'm reliant on 1password, and since this is not a supported browser, it makes my auth more difficult... I think the same could be said about many extensions on FF/Safari/Chrome. Maybe Rockmelt would be best done as an extension?

The interface is pretty bad on top of it all

[tentimestwenty]

It basically looks like Chrome with facebook grafted on the left and right sides. The only problem is that the layout is not nearly as good as the full facebook page. It's actually much easier keeping another tab open with facebook then to use the Rocketmelt interface. The friend list didn't even recognize my groups settings and the icons of most of my friends have nothing to do with their actual face so it was just a bunch of useless things down the left side. The news feed on the right loaded noticeably s

I'm using it now and liking it

[NevarMore]

RockMelt is the first "social" app thats actually made me want to use it. I'm on Facebook frequently during the day, I work from home so FB is my "watercooler". So its nice to check it, quickly, once every few hours. RockMelt helps me do this quickly, I get my social fix and get back to my job.

I also follow several blogs and tech sites, they usually get skimmed over lunch or in the evenings RockMelt actually has an RSS mechanism I like. It saves me time because I can see who has updates. This also lets me s

Re:

[NevarMore]

Yep. This is all part of that "stealth development" the article was talking about. Got me a six digit UID back in the late 90's, posted to /. for years to get my Karma up, and then BLAMMO a decade and a half-later, rolling in the big bucks posting slashvertisements. You caught me.

Re:

[waderoush]

I'm glad you're enjoying RockMelt and I agree with your plaudits and criticisms. But dude. Why does it make me a moron to want more continuity between desktop UIs and mobile UIs? My point was that it seems like a bit of a shame to take $10 million and hire 30 engineers and put them to work for two years on really cool browser that *only works on the desktop,* when I'm trying to spend less time on my desktop, not more.

Is 'Mobile' the new web 2.0 fad ?

[unity100]

its being exaggerated way too much here, and app sales for various phones are also good, but, is this 'mobilization' really as it is exaggerated to be in these articles ? i dont see anyone frantically tweeting, doing status updates in facebook this or that anymore. except kids, whom i also suspect are texting more than they are 'integrating' their various social website accounts.

really. sometimes i think we tech people make up our silly, shitty, irrelevant fads and then get adversely affected ourselves after all the dust clears out.

Re:

[epyT-R]

I guess it depends on what you mean by 'personal.' To me, 'personal' computing means an experience I can customize to my needs/time ratio at the given moment. (time = needed time to customize vs availability) That is decidedly NOT the trend nowadays with all the locked down walled garden products out there, esp in mobileland. You either learn to adapt to the cut down ID 10 T interface, or you spend inordinate amounts of time messing with third party firmware just to get specific functionality you need. (y

Re:

[v(*_*)vvvv]

Must agree. This article and the millions of "journalists" who write ones like it, have always drove the buzz-sphere up into space and back into the ground.

The writer spends more time on how insightful he is for being all over the socio-mobi-web than just reviewing the damn app for what it is... a DESKTOP browser. Far more insight can be found on /. like always.

Besides, if he's sticking with it like he says, then the browser won.

Re:

[mcrbids]

More importantly, I'm just as likely to be posting this from my phone as my laptop. I basically don't browse on my desktop - that's where the printer is, and is far more likely to be showing videos from Hulu/Netflix than normal "desktop computer" use.

Is this really a new browser?

[nickovs]

Watching the video I'm wondering if this is really a new browser concept or is this is just a set of well-designed widgets neatly placed around the borders of the same of browser technology we've had for years? I don't see anything that could not be done using Firefox plug-ins or Safari extensions. I'm not saying that what they have isn't useful to people who live their lives on the Social Network, I just don't see how this idea warrants backing as a venture-capital funded start-up. How long will it be befo

mobile and desktop not really that different

[presidenteloco]

for me anymore.

Let's see: Mobile:
iPad 1024x768 screen resolution
Current Subnotebook (also mobile): 1366x768
iPhone4 960x640

Web design guidelines for a long time:
"Make sure it works on a 1024x768 screen"

We are beyond the WAP browser / Palm Pilot mobile interface.

You need a bit of clever web app design to make it easy to do
a few things well with relatively few clicks, for mobile use convenience
(can I get this done before the bus arrives / rain soaks my phone)
but there is a convergence in what you can do with m

Still 480x320

[tepples]

iPhone4 960x640

At three times the DPI of the screen for which the web was designed. You have to treat iPhone 4 like it's 480x320 blocks of 2x2 pixels each; otherwise, people need a magnifying glass to read text.

Re:

[tepples]

Seriously, the DPI on my 15.4" @ 1920x1200 is way too high to use comfortably at times.

Then you might appreciate my guide to finding the appropriate system DPI setting [pineight.com]. It was written with HDTVs in mind but should apply to any display.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Web design guidelines for a long time:
"Make sure it works on a 1024x768 screen"

In 2001 a majority of users were still at 800x600. Today it's still a strong contingent. If you want people too busy to upgrade their computer to buy your shit, keep 800x600.

Why is this a big deal ?

[DalDei]

Why the hell do we need a new browser to do ":Social Networking" ? I watched the video and so totally dont get it maybe I'm just past my years ... But whats the point ? All the social networking sites have perfectly fine apps and plugins that work with existing browsers and devices why on earth would anyone switch to a new browser for this ? The way browsers are nowadays its like switching to a new OS just to use Facebook ... Is the world insane ? People actually invested time and money on this concept ? W

Re:

[Kagetsuki]

I am so on the same page with you. I don't actively use facebook, I hate how disorganized twitter is, and maybe use YouTube twice a week. Even if I did use these services extensively I don't see how much better this browser would be than having each site opened up in a different tab. It looks like a "mac" thing so maybe it's just that the target market can't figure out how to copy and paste and they have to click-and-drag everything. Either way if this company actually makes a profit off of this browser I'l

I got my social networking apps being social

[Nyder]

I'm really, really starting to get sick of "social networking" and all the crap that deals with it.

Is life so different now from 10, or even 5 years ago that we have to update everyone on what the fuck we are doing all the time?

Are we so shallow that we have to know whats going on with everyone we know all the time?

Can we not live our own lives without everyone comparing themselves to us, and us without comparing to them?

Am I cool because I have a facebook account, or am I cool because I don't use it?

Oh, i

Another Flock? More ways to share crap with people

[Closrapexa]

Remember when innovation was something tangible you could see and feel all around you, instead of more ways to share the nothings people do with other people who share their own nothings?