Review: RockMelt, the birth of a new browsing era?

 

I spent a lot of time online, so I like to do so through an effective browser. Like most of us, I started with Internet Explorer untill moving on to the bigger and better (FireFox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, etc. However, when it all comes down to it, they really are identical in function, but different in speed and extensions. Untill today, I’ve almost soley been using Google Chrome. However, RockMelt certainly feels promising.

RockMelt is built on Chromium, the open source project behind Google's Chrome browser, and it has financial backing from Netscape founder Marc Andreesen. It's Mac and PC friendly, and available today as an early release. Funding is estimated at $10 Million.

When I first changed over I immediately became concerned by its similarities to Chrome, only a little junked up with side bars (known as edges) and other buttons. It not only has an identical bookmark bar, and folder appeal, but it also has built in Google search. However, you can not only search google easily from the address bar, you can also search google through a popout tab by using the google search bar. This feature proves rather useful, as you find yourself not bouncing form page to page as much juggling information.

This browser is clearly built for social media. For starters, you have to log into Facebook to use it. once logged in, you have access to all your settings and bookmarks no matter where you log in. RockMelt also adds a very convenient “Share” button, which allows you to directly and conveniently share webpages right to Facebook. You can add pages to your right edge, giving you RSS Feed updates directly as you search. You also get popup updates when your friends update to Facebook, like an MSN popup. Very convenient.

My first concern came with the edges. At first glance they are just too much clutter, especially when coming form a browser as sleek as Chrome. On the left edge you can see everyone who is online on facebook, and on the right is your page updates. I immediately removed the left edge. It’s annoying. Now my RockMelt browser resembles my Chrome browser almost identically, but with a right edge giving me updates on my FB, Digg, and Twitter, as they happen without even needing to flip to the pages.

I will admit, I really did not like it for the first few hours. Now I really see no reason to ever leave it. Everything is just so easy, and integrated, all with the beautiful layout of Chrome.