Is Rockmelt The Future Of Social Media Or Just A Noisy Distraction?

Social Media June 14, 2011 2 Comments

There has been plenty of talk today about Rockmelt teaming up with Facebook to deepen their relationship and integrate more features in to the social browser. In case you are not familiar with Rockmelt it’s a web browser with lots of social features built in and we have written about it here before along with their iPhone version. When I wrote about it in the past I gave it a quick spin and wasn’t really overly impressed as I thought it was a bit too noisy and distracting but I decided to give it a good test today and have been using it for the last 6 hours without flicking back in to other browsers and I have to say I am impressed and see a big future for Rockmelt.

Logging In With Facebook

So before you even start the browser you have to log in with your Facebook account so as the whole experience can be personalized for you. What this effectively means though is that without a Facebook account the browser is actually pretty much useless to you so Rockmelt are very much in bed with Facebook and need them to continue to be a success as well as a company.

As soon as the browser is up and running you can see all your Facebook notifications right there at the top of the toolbar without even having to log in to the Facebook site. So no matter what site you are on or what you are doing on the web as soon as something happens on your Facebook profile you will be given a notification.

Super Fast Sharing

If you like sharing a lot of content then this is the browser for you because it is by far and away the quickest way that I have ever seen of sharing content to social networks. Built in to the top of the browser is a button which when clicked lets you share to either Facebook or Twitter instantly. With Facebook it even gives you additional options like sharing as a message or just to friend’s walls.

Instant Twitter Access

Built in to the apps on in the sidebar is Twitter access which means that instead of logging in to Twitter.com or even firing up an additional app you can have a quick glance in at your timeline or at searches that you have set up. The one drawback here is that it might be too distracting and easy to get at.

Youtube Videos

The Youtube app allows you to search and watch for videos all within a handy little widget and it means that you don’t have to head over to the main site itself every single time (unless you want to watch a larger version for example). It’s a handy way of finding quick pieces of content.

Friends Always Visible

Most of us are pretty much logged in to Facebook all day anyway and only ever a couple of clicks away from it but with Rockmelt your friends are there in the sidebar all of the time ready to chat and be interacted with. Whatever way you look at it there is a chance that it could be massively handy or a serious ongoing distraction.

Quick Browsing

Most of us only go to about 10-12 sites on average on a daily basis anyway and rather than having to type those addresses in to the toolbar every time you can simply drag them in to the sidebar and have them there on a permanent basis. You can even read snippets of the stories in an RSS format and then click through to the full site if and when you see something of interest.

Will It Work?

I used it for six hours and I have to say I found a lot of the features very useful and I was able to do a lot of the things I do on a daily basis much much quicker than I would with a normal browser. Having said that I work in social media and blog constantly so this product is tailor made for me whereas I’m not sure everybody else needs that speed and pace that this delivers. I like the direction it is heading and with more and more people spending their entire time on social media sites I think this has a big future. It’s a product that is evolving nicely and I can see it gaining some market share and not taking over from mainstream browsers like Firefox and Chrome but offering something different to a certain type of power user. There is no doubt that it is noisy and could be distracting to some people going about their work but if you want your browser to be more social then this is it!

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