New Browser - Rockmelt

RockMelt is the Netscape Netscape should have been, says Netscape developer | News.com.au

Quote:

THE web has changed a lot since Marc Andreessen revolutionised the internet with the introduction of his Netscape browser in the mid-1990s.

That's why he's betting people are ready to try a different web-surfing experience on a new browser called RockMelt.

The browser, available for the first time this week, is built on the premise that most online activity today revolves around socialising on Facebook, searching on Google, tweeting on Twitter and monitoring a handful of favourite websites.

It tries to minimise the need to roam from one website to the next by corralling all vital information and favourite services in panes and drop-down windows.

"This is a chance for us to build a browser all over again," Mr Andreessen said.

"These are all things we would have done (at Netscape) if we had known how people were going to use the web."

Mr Andreessen didn't develop the RockMelt browser the way he did Netscape, whose early popularity waned as Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer with Windows.

RockMelt is the handiwork of Tim Howes and Eric Vishria, who formerly worked with Mr Andreessen, but Mr Andreessen's seal of approval has been stamped on start-up.

The biggest chunk of RockMelt's $US10 million in funding has come from the venture capital firm that Mr Andreessen runs with his partner, Ben Horowitz.

Mr Andreessen also sits on RockMelt's board of directors and his advice has been called upon frequently.

"When you are trying to reinvent the web browser, who would you rather run your ideas by besides Marc?" said Mr Howes, RockMelt's chief technology officer.

Facebook's imprint also is all over RockMelt, although the two companies' only business connection so far is Mr Andreessen. He also serves on Facebook's board of directors.

RockMelt only works if you have a Facebook account. That restriction still gives RockMelt plenty of room to grow, given Facebook has more than 500 million users.

After Facebook users log on RockMelt with their Facebook account information, the person's Facebook profile picture is planted in the browser's left hand corner and a list of favorite friends can be displayed in the browser's left-hand pane.

There's also a built-in tool for posting updates in a pop-up box.

The features extend beyond Facebook and Twitter.

RockMelt includes a tool that shows results from Google searches in a drop-down box that can be scrolled through to peruse the recommended websites in the main part of the browser.

The browser's right-hand pane is reserved for listing favourite websites, with automatic notifications whenever they post fresh information.

RockMelt stores each user's preferences on a remote server, making them available on any computer that has the browser installed on its hard drive.

Although its backers hail the browser as a breakthrough, RockMelt is borrowing some technology and ideas from other sources.

Its foundation is built on Chromium, the same open-source coding that spawned Google's Chrome browser two years ago.

Another browser, Flock, has been trying to tap into the online social scene for the past five years.

No browser has come close to surpassing Internet Explorer, despite various challenges through the years.

Internet Explorer still holds a roughly 60 per cent market share, according to the research firm Net Applications.

The Mozilla Foundation's Firefox, which drew upon Netscape, ranks a distant second at 23 per cent followed by Chrome at nine per cent.

RockMelt is starting off with a modest goal: it hopes to attract 1 million users as it extends invitations to people interested in trying the browser.

Requests can be made through RockMelt - Your Browser. Re-imagined. Connect for an invitation..

Mr Andreessen is convinced Internet Explorer's lead remains vulnerable, even after more than a decade of domination and repeated upgrades.

"I don't believe in mature markets," he said.

"I think markets are only mature when there is a lack of innovative products."

Anyone have anymore info?

Is RockMelt the Social Web Browser We've Been Waiting For?

Rockmelt: The Facebook of Web Browsers - PCWorld

bury it! no more browsers!

I've read about it but a browser linked with a sidebar for facebook/twitter will only distract me. I don't like the Idea. I'd rather use the Tweetdeck desktop and have a seperate browser.

Seems like a waste to me, if I want to use other stuff I just open it all in tabs *shrug*

Just got this installed. Actually seems really nifty so far. Will post up impressions once I've thrown a days use at it.

Verdict: it's fucking awesome.

I have invites if anyone wants to try it.

Shit hot.

need plz.

Invited.

I'd like to try it. Can you send me an invite Rec?

Its nice, I like it, but I dont always want to wait for it to connect to facebook every time i open it, also would like to use it as just a browser without facebook needing to be connected to, which I know you can, but you still have to wait at the start up for it to connect to facebook, then click cancel. but I just want it to open straight up into the browser...

Quote from Ph3n0m3n0n;391749:
Its nice, I like it, but I dont always want to wait for it to connect to facebook every time i open it, also would like to use it as just a browser without facebook needing to be connected to, which I know you can, but you still have to wait at the start up for it to connect to facebook, then click cancel. but I just want it to open straight up into the browser...

As mentioned, that's called Google Chrome. ;)

Any way to make the friend edge hidden and reappear if you move your mouse to the LHS? It shits me having all those icons on the left.

I did think of that, and I agree. Should be an option to auto-hide it until you roll-over.

Just learnt some new things with this video. Such as I can drag any website link onto a person in my contact list on the left, and it shares it with them in chat, through a FB message or directly to their wall. Complete with pictures and notes.

[Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAPKPhoTqFY]

Wow that looks great for any FB junkie, how do you think it compares speed wise?

Seems exactly like Chrome. But with Facebook.

You don't even have to use the Facebook aspect.

There's still the infinitely useful RSS feed/extensions thing down the rhs as well as the modified google search thingy.

I actually want to be able to share via email as well as facebook with the share button. Like Android.

Yeah I'd like that too, although the only person I know who doesn't have or use Facebook is my Mum. But she doesn't use a computer, period - so even e-mail would be useless.

The best they've got to hide the edges is ctrl+shift+left/right arrow. :\

I dont use facebook, as far as i'm concerned that and twitter is whats wrong with the internet these days... browser looks nice tho, could be very useful even without the social networking side.

Quote from Ratty;391801:
as i'm concerned that and twitter is whats wrong with the internet these days

You just won the "ignorant comment of the evening" award.

I'm with Ratty, Social networking can go smoke a pole ^_^

Yeah, easily keeping in touch with your friends sucks.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

As if it wasn't easy enough already? Whats next a fucking telepathic link?

Why not? We are in the future man... and since when was efficiency undesirable?

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

I don't know about other people but I can honestly say Facebook has brought me closer to my friends.

Agreed, Wrathlon.

The ability to share experiences with such ease that are immediately available for everyone you care about to see and read is empowering. I know more about the lives of my friends and family than I ever did with e-mail and phone calls. Because the participation is so regular, there's a huge sense of connection.

I've rekindled friendships from years ago, stumbled across people I remembered fondly but never thought I'd see again, and get to stay in daily contact with my friends over in the UK - and it's as simple as a quick wall post, the reading of a status update or browsing of tagged photos.

My family followed my entire 6 months of travel through Europe thanks to status updates and photos on Facebook. My parents didn't care much for Facebook until the realisation that the photos they were looking at were taken just moments before they saw them - they were following me real time, and it almost made them feel like they were along for the ride with me.

In a closing note, my two closest friends are products of social interaction online. As is my girlfriend of 6 years, now fiance. Anyone who continues to try and say "online" and "social" when paired isn't legitimate, is an idiot. Look around you. Facebook is the greatest extension of this amazing communication medium we have called the internet since, ever. And you must remember, the internet is indeed a communication medium.

As for a telepathic link... you kid. But shouldn't.

I thought I'd throw in another quick reply with some stats, which play a tremendous part of why Facebook is such a viable communication platform, and why I say it's today's white pages. And that's what it is, just an interactive white pages - I'm not sure why there's so much resistance. Well, in fact, there is almost no resistance. You two are an absolute minority...

AU FB profiles: 9,520,280 (Approx 44% of entire population)
NZ FB profiles: 1,761,960 (Approx 42% of entire population)

US FB profiles: 138,660,280 (Approx 36% of entire population)
UK FB profiles: 26,543,600 (Approx 38% of entire population)

Now consider that to have a Facebook account you need the internet. 80% of Australians are online. You also can't have a Facebook account if you're younger than 13, now consider that 19% of Australia's population is in that age bracket. Now consider that 13% of the Australian popular is also over 65.

You can see what I'm getting at: virtually everyone has Facebook.

you're forgetting that number of profiles counts business FB profiles ;)

That depends on what figures you're looking at.

Even when that is the case, there are about 2 million businesses in Australia. And an absolute fraction of those have a presence on Facebook.

So let's say we should deduct a few hundred thousand accounts from that aforementioned 9,170,000 figure.

Edit: as of August 31st, 2010, total Australian Facebook accounts were at 9,520,280. From what I understand, almost 500,000 of those aren't personal accounts.

so? i'm still right :P

Indeed. And the point is it makes very little difference.

Exactly, It also makes organising things like BBQs, etc a million times easier. Instead of trying to catch every single person individually or track down phone numbers and email addresses and note shit down just do up an invite, send it out, done.

If I see something cool and want to share it, I just post it and done.

Also, as with rec, both my girlfriend and my closest friend I met through the internet. Hell recently I caught up with some school friends from Darwin who moved down here. Without facebook I would never have known.

Stop picking on the social luddites guys! ;)

I stand by my comment, if i wanted to know when my mates were taking a shit, or when they last had there aunt flow visit.... wait i never wanna know that...

i prefer face to face interaction but thats just me i guess.... i love my tech and i cant live without a mobile phone/PC/internet, but facebook/twitter just shits me with its random crap.

i suppose that maybe if i actually cared about talking to randoms that met me once and wanna add me on the friends list or i had family i knew or cared about it might be different.

Funny that, I've never read a status update about someone taking a shit.

Perhaps it's your friends that are the problem, and not Facebook. :P

Quote from rec;391846:
Funny that, I've never read a status update about someone taking a shit.

Perhaps it's your friends that are the problem, and not Facebook. :P

QFT

I think his comment about shit posts was just the extreme version of the standard minutiae:

Quote from October 31 at 3:44pm via iPhone:
is posting on Facebook after seeing that movie about Facebook.

NB: I freely admit to posting pointless crap too =)

edit: oops! just noticed this one about a shit being taken =) :

Quote from October 25 at 9:46am via iPhone:
just got shat on by a flying bird. Right on the head. Such a good shot...

Bird shit doesn't count. ;P

actually, i had to dig it out... but i had one about shit...

Chris Jay ‎13.15 hours of work... Back to work in 8 hours. I think I've just got enough time for a shower and a shit. 10 September at 02:43

If there was ever a decent reason to use Facebook for those who hate it so much, it would be to reconnect with those you have lost. Reconnecting a lost friendship is worth the world and Facebook is the only way.

The only way? are you serious? people were "reconnecting" long before facebook came out. ^ this is the reason I hate facebook so much it's not so much the thing itself but more the dribbling hype it creates. I call it Apple Syndrome it's not a product it's a lifestyle.

To try and steer us back on topic however I have tried this browser and the interface is clean. However I prefer seamonkey and believe that to be the true Netscape equivalent ^_^

Quote from r00t|{it;391881:
The only way? are you serious? people were "reconnecting" long before facebook came out.

There's no more effective way to reconnect with people you've lost touch with than with facebook. That's an unassailable fact.

You're going to get "dribbling hype" whenever the general public is involved to such a great extent. Them's just the breaks dude.

I personally use it solely to keep in touch with people. It is customisable enough that you don't need to have to deal with the mundane shit that probably turns you off. I'm looking at you Farmville.

Quote from r00t|{it;391881:
The only way? are you serious?

For me, there have been instances where it really was the only way. Other times it wasn't the only way, but it was by far the most convenient way.

I used to know a girl named Jess. We didn't have any mutual friends, and we lost contact when I moved state. Post the move, she had changed her number and moved house, I had done the same. She wasn't listed in the white pages and I never knew her e-mail as she didn't have a computer and barely jumped online. That was literally it; we were never going to see each other again.

Years later when Facebook really began to take off, we found each other there and have been in contact ever since.

Facebook, among other communication technologies, have changed my life in the utmost positive manner. And that's no dribbling hype.

What I hate more than dribbling hype is ignorant resistance. I don't see you disconnecting your mobile phone, selling your television or deleting your e-mail account - so why would you deny another remarkable communication tool?

Quote from rec;391892:
Sometimes it really is the only way.

I used to know a girl named Jess. We didn't have any mutual friends.

We lost contact when I moved state. Post the move, she had changed her number and moved house, I had done the same. She wasn't listed in the white pages and I never knew her e-mail as she didn't have a computer and barely jumped online. That was literally it; we were never going to see each other again.

Years later when Facebook really began to take off, we found each other there and have been in contact ever since.

Facebook, among other communication technologies, have changed my life in the utmost positive manner. And that's no dribbling hype.

I agree. Its really the only decent tool to keep casually in touch with people because of the deep integration in society, everybody basically has a facebook account.

Facebook is simple, formal and doesnt have the dribble crap like myspace with wacky backgrounds and horrible background profile music.

But then again, these remarks are coming from a guy who deleted his facebook account. =D

Aegis got my point, i do know some people who do post that kind of crap (i ignore them IRL as well), but i meant more the random unimportant details of peoples lives that no one cares about...

Rec #
i understand using it to keep in touch with people u lose track of or cant normally keep in touch with, i have a facebook account that i haven't used in over 12 months, however i have a friend in Scotland that has krohns disease as well as ehlers danlos syndrome so she cannot spend more than a few minutes a day typing or sitting at her PC, she is the only reason i haven't deleted my facebook account.

when she send a msg i got a copy in my email account so that i can reply.

I'm glad somebody agrees to a point, maybe I didn't word myself correctly but the point was reconnecting with people with little to no effort, sure there are other ways, but just about everybody has Facebook so convenience I think out ways every other method.

And if any of my Facebook friends were immature enough to tell me when they last had a shit then they would be promptly removed.

Rec I think you might need to google the word ignorant because I'm not sure you understand what it means. While I don't argue the effectiveness of facebook as a means of connecting people together. I personally do not view it as a technical marvel (the internet was the technical marvel, facebook is merely as someone previously stated the new whitepages for the internet) and I certainly would not consider it a life changing experience, especially when those that have come before it ie. Myspace and Bebo have all but left the publics eye.

That's because MySpace and Bebo simply weren't done right. More importantly, they weren't managed and driven right. Where they've failed, Facebook has succeeded, because of the bright people involved with it.

And saying the internet is the marvel is vastly flawed. The internet's role in today's society would be significantly diminished if it weren't for things like http, e-mail, IM, Skype, eBay, and yes even Facebook.

I suppose you think modern day road networks are pretty cool? What if there were no motor vehicles?

just to clarify how your question should be worded:

Quote:
I suppose you think modern day road networks are pretty cool? What if there were no motor vehicles that were steered via demanding corn from passing friends?

facebook, while good at getting you in touch with friends and shit, is still an utter piece of shit site. It's a horrible interface compounded by their incessant need to keep hiding shit in different places every other day. and i wont even start on the default privacy settings.

lol @ Rec not being impressed by the ability to connect people across the globe via electrical signals but totally entranced by peoples abilities to talk about themselves using said signals.
Road networks and cars? You might want to google Metaphors while your at it.

I'm not saying I wasn't impressed with the Internet, you must have read a post of mine that i never made?

I'm saying it's what we've done with that technology that is more impressive.

A good metaphor or not, I'd hope that you had the comprehension skills to understood what I was getting at despite that. But if you'd prefer to give up and argue semantics, we can do that instead.

Lets not talk about semantics, If you are having trouble articulating yourself clearly then you should take more time before posting. And I am sorry if I have failed in my intepretation of your posts however calling me vastly mistaken for assuming the internet is a technical marvel has lead me to believe that you are not overly impressed with it. While I applaud the human race for being able to use such technology so effectively, I still think it is far more impressive that the option is there in the first place. Now we have gone completely off topic I suggest we call it quits. I will undoubtedly be subjected to at least one more retort but I think I will end my comments here.

Quote from Aegis;391940:
facebook, while good at getting you in touch with friends and shit, is still an utter piece of shit site. It's a horrible interface compounded by their incessant need to keep hiding shit in different places every other day. and i wont even start on the default privacy settings.

If you're using RockMelt, then you don't have to visit the Facebook website. :P

[Image: http://weblogs.variety.com/thompsononhollywood/images/2008/01/30/bardem110807.jpg]

Reslo; you can now hide the edges (right click on them).

Or press ctrl+shift+space to hide/reveal both at once.

rec any chance you can shoot me an invite bud?

I'm out, Sean. OD still has some left. But he also says that he has already invited you!

He did? Hrm.

And he just re-invited you, too (check Facebook messages).

Anyone tried Flock ? It too now uses Chromium.

It's just not as good. It felt like it was trying way too hard.

Might give it another looksie I guess.

I've dl'd it today.

I like the live news feeds rather than rockmelts having to click on the icon to reveal the news feed.