RockMelt – The Social Browser

There has been a browser war going on for some years now, with mainstream competitors such as Mozilla Firefox , Opera , Chrome and Safari (I would not even dare to call Microsoft’s Internet Explorer a browser, as we say in Urdu “Apni izzat apnay hath”).

CAUTION: Use Internet explorer at your own risk.

Somewhere around November 2010, a new contestant “RockMelt” stepped in the arena. It had everything that Google Chrome has, the sleak look, customization, Fast Chromium Engine and a lot more.And It offered what no browser offered before … “social integration”. Well I may be over exegarating but the way it integrates social networks is so intuitive to use that it hardly takes fifteen minutes to get used to it. And once you get the hold of it, you just feel like “sharing” more and being more “e-social”.

RockMelt comes built on Chromium Engine, which means it can work with anything Google Chrome can. The UI may look too similar to Chrome but why should it be a problem when Chromium itself has a great UI. Rockmet is compaible with almost all Google Chrome extensions and the extra juice it pours to make your experience sweeter is “Auto Suggesting” a compatible app/extension if there is any for the current website.

You can stay updated about your social networks and other feeds without leaving your browser or the page. Plus there is an in-built “View Later” application.

You found something interesting and want to share it right away ? with RockMelt, this is not a problem. You just have to click “Share” and it will present you with a dialog box asking for which social sites you would like to share this with. Its that simple and intuitive.

Okay, so I have been playing around with this Browser, and here is my evaluation.

Advantages:

Chromium engine base allows RockMelt to be compatible with Google Chrome Extensions, and if you were a Chrome user then moving to RockMelt feels like a walk in the park.

User experience

The people at RockMelt have made such good and efficient use of the screen space that you never feel cluttered even with so many updates going around. It uses the side walls of the browser for Social Network Integration.

Facebook and Twitter

I have found myself sharing posts and viewing shared posts on my wall and on my twitter stream more regularly than I did before RockMelt, because I don’t have to move away from what I am doing. And It doesn't require me to do “anything” except press a button to share.

Share button

Simply, “The magic click”

Disadvantages

In-built download manager still lacks the luster.

Twitter stream does not only keep count of your mentions but also of any update on the stream, which is annoying. There should be a provision of choosing either or both, but there should be a choice.

If you are a heavy social media user, you’ll probably find the experience useful and enjoyable.  However if you only find yourself on Facebook or Twitter 1-2 times per day, I would stick with your normal browser of choice. 


http://www.rockmelt.com/