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RockMelt: Google Chrome, Only Better
Barence writes "PC Pro has an in-depth review of RockMelt, a new browser which it claims is better than Google Chrome. RockMelt is built on the same Chromium core as Google's browser, but adds a host of social networking, news feed and search features that elevate it above Chrome. The App Edge, for example, 'allows you to set up feeds for anything from your Twitter or Gmail accounts to your favourite news sites, and get a little iPhone-style numeric reminder of the number of items awaiting your attention.' It does, however, lack Chrome's built-in Flash, PDF and audio players."
It lacks features that would make it a better browser (like the awesome PDF reader), and adds social networking an an RSS reader, which I can just get by going to the appropriate websites on any browser. Great.
Everyone wants to be as good as or better than Chrome. Way to go Google!
Social media integration was such a great idea, and worked so well for Flock, I don't see why these guys could possibly fail.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Flock is dead.... short live the Rockmelt!
They haven't learned the lesson from Flock, have they?
I just want a goddamn browser, without any of the facebook twitter buttons and toolbars and shit. When I want to update my facebook status, I will get there.
I'm legitimately curious, are there people out there that are so awfully busy that they need a browser to check the news and Facebook for them? Did it suddenly become old-fashioned to actually type "cnn.com" in the address bar? I'm all for social networking and most everything that's happened in this field for the past few years. But at what point is it taken too far?
A company will send out press releases to media outlets (magazines, newspapers, tv shows / stations, bloggers) to inform them of new products or offerings.
In some cases, marketing people will directly contact the magazine or newspaper by calling up and pitching a story based on their product or offering.
Depending on the media outlet, thinly veiled advertising is achieved by the marketing person making a good impression on the media outlet, or by offering a free unit, and in some cases gifts. In some seedier situations money is exchanged so that the media outlet will portray the product in a favorable light, so that the reader's distrust of direct advertising can be circumvented through the illusion of new or useful information.
And while I certainly don't mean to suggest that RockMelt paid off PC Pro for this story, more-so, I'd posit that PC Pro is just happy to get the hits.
I would be happier to learn that I had less choices in browsers. But that is the developer bias. Still, it seems to me that you really have to raise the bar if you want to be taken seriously, not just be Chrome+1. And I'm resistant to features which are tied in to services offered by certain companies (Facebook, Twitter) instead of just standardized services (RSS, FTP).
Larger question... would we not be better served if we started treating the browser more like a commodity item? Basic, standard features in an unglamorous browser, and... that's it. And then with a nice stable development platform that doesn't change around every 2 weeks, the real interesting features can start arriving at the web application layer. Standardize the browsers so we can forget about their individual features.
I just tested Rockmelt for a week or two and besides the fact that there is not Linux version yet, I love it. Just don't judge it on the "Social Browser" thing, the best feature is clearly the embed RSS reader it has which is absolutely perfect when you wanna check tons of news websites. besides, the UI design is really well made(and the embed google search makes it even smoother) and most of all, it's compatible with all chrome/chromium extensions. In my opinion its more chromium++ than a totally new browser, but since chromium is great, it's even better. Well that just what i think: go try it shashdot, it's worth it.
It bears repeating.
but adds a host of social networking, news feed and search features that make it a pile of dog crap compared to Google's Chrome
Fixed that for you. There's a reason I switched to Firebird from IE and old school Mozilla back in the day. It was sleek; it was fast; it didn't have a bunch of crap bloat thrown into it like IE and Mozilla.
There's a reason I switched to Chrome from Firefox. Chrome is sleek; it's fast; it doesn't have a bunch of crap bloat thrown into it like Firefox.
There's a reason I'll switch from Chrome to the next usable browser; it'll be sleek; fast; and not have the bunch of crap bloat that Google will eventually throw into Chrome, because all browser producers are stupid and sooner or later think shiny bullshit is more important than speed and stability.
Wouldn't the features described be more suited to a Chrome plugin (would that be feasible?) rather than a completely new browser?
unfortunately, their browser did not work on Linux :(
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/11/12/226250/RockMelt-mdash-Right-Browser-Wrong-Platform
"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."
It does, however, lack Chrome's built-in Flash, PDF and audio players."
"also, it lacks support for html but we are working on it..."
The whole topic sounds as if it could be translated: "Just like date rape, only better"
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Didn't this thing come out months ago? As I recall, it was a pile of ass and proprietary nonsense.
sic transit gloria mundi
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"This sounds like hipster malware adware garbage for tweens."
You are right, and with that formula it should succeed brilliantly!
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Another version of Chrome that forces a choice between having bookmarks visible all the time or having them several mouse clicks away in a window/tab/panel that needs to be closed. It's like having a smart phone that has a scrollable contact list as your homescreen and a rotary dial; one you don't want open all the time and the other is clunky.
Every program has drop down menus for selecting from lists of items because they work better than everything else that's been tried. Bookmarks are probably the best use cases for a drop down menu, you just want to make a selection and have the menu go away.
Also, how did non-scrollable tabs make it through the first alpha version? After 10 tabs are smashed together, you can't really tell which is which and after about 20, they're just blank nubs. How is that useful?
This sentence no verb.
So they took out the good parts of a browser, and tacked on a bunch of bits I don't need, and call it better? I don't think so.
I started messing around with RockMelt six months ago after receiving an invite. It's ok, but I have yet to find a real compelling reason to use it over Chrome, especially since, as the article mentions, it only sort-of supports Chrome extensions, which means I can only sort-of do things that I rely on Chrome for.
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
Never forget: 2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.
too bad there is currently no extension that does this. Besides, how do you make money out of a browser extension?
yeah but does it do print preview?
Moo.
It means you need a font that distinguishes capital I from lowercase l. Those are different letters.
The only Chrome build on my system is Iron:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/SRWare_Iron
Like Chrome but without the call home/tracking info.
It's the same browser as Chromium with a few options being hardcoded instead of being user-selectable. http://chromium.hybridsource.org/the-iron-scam
I am excited again about the time when ActiveDesktop and PointCast channels were announced!
> but adds a host of social networking
Yep, better.
In related news, Konqueror has been able to embedd PDF an incredible PDF viewer, has been running flash in a separate process, has had customizable web shortcuts, and the only decent password and cookie management for almost a decade, now. Oh, and their HTML engine is what Webkit came from.
tl;dr: Try Konqueror today.
apparently racist browsers are ok too
www.blackbirdhome.com
There already is a good browser into which they've crammed a ton of bling and other unimportant crap that should have been banished into optional add-ons. It's called Firefox!
This is just a minor obstacle.
Think "virtual machines" or "binary code recompilation" or "intermediate languages" or "LLVM".
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
The Google/Facebook Panopticon "business" model of turning "customers" into inventory REALLY is suited to the date-rape metaphor.
"I thought we were going to have a wonderful evening. Everything started out so nice, and he paid for everything...".
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Well, aside from no one is being forced into doing anything, rape is a totally applicable term here.
I'm sick and tired of having to visit crappy websites to be annoyed by something, I'm glad somebody made a browser that brings the annoyances straight to you without needed to do anything.