Facebook Plunges Again
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Hands-on with RockMelt, the underwhelming Chrome 6-based Facebook-connected Web browser
RockMelt is, for all intents and purposes, Chrome 6 with a couple of attractive sidebars. On the left is the 'Friends Edge', where you can see your online Facebook friends, and on the right is the 'App Edge', where you interact with activity feeds. There's also a 'Share' widget up near the address bar... but that's it. As I said, this is Chrome with some sidebars that could easily be added with extensions.
But as they're not extensions that you can simply add to your current installation of Chrome, you're forced into using RockMelt and its antiquated Chrome 6 underpinnings. You're also forced into logging into Facebook -- which takes ages every time you load up the browser. I guess it's downloading my entire profile every time I connect (incidentally, if you try to browse before RockMelt has finished scraping data from Facebook, the browser crashes and refuses to restart.)
Once you get going, though, it's actually quite fun. Sharing links with friends, or Twitter, is very easy. The interface is attractive and easy to use. Chatting with Facebook friends pops up a new window, which is handy, and the search box displays results on top of your current page, in a layer, rather than navigating you away from your current page. You can also search for friends from both the address and search boxes -- neat. Third-party extensions can be installed as normal onto the right-hand bar -- but so what? Chrome could already do that.
No matter which way you look at it,
Awesome.
Comments
20
Subscribe to commentsnetwurkpunkNov 8th 2010 1:18PM
This will go nowhere just like Flock did.
Sgt ZeppelinNov 8th 2010 1:30PM
If anything, this browser will make Flock look good.
swampslashNov 8th 2010 1:23PM
Great piece. I'm glad Download Squad doesn't pull any punches. There have been so many fluff articles about this thing.
JasonDashNov 8th 2010 1:27PM
The main problem with coding them as plug-ins for Chrome is, as far as I'm aware, they have to be written in HTML/Javascript/CSS, whereas using custom build of Chrome they can do it all in native code, ergo faster developement, and better integrated UI.
Sebastian AnthonyNov 9th 2010 5:56AM
Ah-hah -- yeah, if the extensions are hiding in some DLLs (I couldn't find anything else), then you're right... that would make them faster!
But it's hardly a complex UI. I think JavaScript would've been just fine :)
operative.alexNov 8th 2010 6:24PM
I take a much different approach to this, I guess.
You look at the small developer pool and say "uh oh, if it's not coming from a big company, support is going to be terrible."
I look at the small size of the organization and I think "acquisition material".
The browser is obviously not much more than a facelift for Chrome...but it's a well executed one. While you bemoan the load times for facebook login, I see it as a small, manageable problem. All it would take, in my opinion, is the fact that the browser should open first, signing you into facebook in the background, and the side tabs don't appear until it does.
See, I may be wrong about this, but I look at the future of the webs, and I keep seeing a bunch of applications, rather than a ton of individual websites. Maybe I'm skewed. I'm the kind of guy who loves programs like Trillian and Digsby (and the new Windows Live Messenger). I think pulling together chat and status update streams without having to be on the website is tremendously useful.
You take that capability and stick it directly in the browser? It's a good fit. Yes, it's using an outdated version of Chrome. Yes, there are potential flaws. But the good points (essentially a friends list that never requires you to leave the window you're on) are still worth capitalizing on. The search feature alone in impressive to me. While I'd prefer a unified bar, the ability to preview the stories before jumping to the page is very useful and a lot faster than back and forth browsing, or having to open everything in a new tab.
I look at the functionality that this offers and I think "man, this would certainly be useful in a Chrome-OS based system. Losing out on a stand-alone chat program like Trillian would actually be a bummer for me. With this (and some added features, obviously), there wouldn't be as much need for a stand-along program.
Honestly, the people who could use this most I think would actually be Microsoft. Buy these guys up, and introduce them to the guys making IE9 as well as Windows Live Messenger, and have these guys help bolt WLM onto IE9. There are a lot of great things about WLM (for one, the way you view photos is about 1,000 times better than going to Facebook)...but I'm always a bit annoyed that I have to keep another program open for it.
If I could run IE9 and have my MSN, and Facebook friends populating along the side, with quick ways to search, share and maintain my RSS feeds...well, I'd be a happy man.
At any rate, yes, the browser has flaws. Big ones. Yet, if you look at it as a science project rather than as a commercial release, it's a lot more impressive. Someone who makes other browsers should definitely look into hiring these guys, because their ideas combined with the forthcoming projects from Google and Microsoft actually have a chance to make those browsers better.
They're getting a lot of press, which at least suggest that users are enjoying the experience for the most part. Sure, it's not a "OMG, my life is changed forever" moment, but despite the aging internals, the product itself manages to do some things that are very impressive. If, given that they are small and using only the open source code they can get, they can actually improve upon Chrome's default behavior...well, imagine what they could do with support from Google...or Microsoft.
At least that's how I look at it.
Sebastian AnthonyNov 10th 2010 5:25AM
Thanks for taking the time to give some well-articulated thoughts!
I agree, most end-users will probably like RockMelt -- but... that's not the point, at least as far as I'm concerned.
If IE6 was still the only browser on the market, users would probably enjoy it too!
RockMelt just feels like a bit of a step back, rather than forward. But it might trigger someone to develop some extensions to mirror its functionality... and that would be cool.
Crome TysnomiGnu32Nov 9th 2010 1:59AM
What the bloody hell is that stupid, gaudy "RockMelt" button on the top left corner?
Sebastian AnthonyNov 9th 2010 5:55AM
It was obviously borrowed from Firefox :)
Cougar AbogadoNov 9th 2010 9:56PM
As a non-Facebook user (gasp!), I shudder to think of my "friends" sitting on both shoulders and guiding me through the Web, as though they were the mainspring of my existence. Heck, I get enough of an upset stomach just walking past the Sea of Facebook in my law school classrooms, thanks.
While I agree RockMelt _could_, some day (five-year Flock style?), be acquisition material, at this point, I'm more impressed with the point that Google, Apple, and MS have big $ and people who know what the melt they're doing.
I also agree that third party extensions/apps/or whatever could probably do 90% of what's presented in the core RockMelt product.
At the end of the day, I'm glad to see a Chromium offspring making some developmental waves and somewhat disturbed at beholding another push for more Facebook zombies to roam the earth, liking and poking anything that moves. At least, according to Lee's source, it will be great advertising fodder.
Awesome, indeed.
Sebastian AnthonyNov 10th 2010 5:23AM
Thanks for taking the time to comment -- and I agree, it's nice to see a branch of Chromium!
Violet BlueNov 10th 2010 5:29PM
This is a fab writeup. I'm now a new fan. I think your RockMelt slap and my RockMelt spanking should be friends:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/cavegirl-discover-rockmelt-throw-facebook-browser-through-window/14539
Sebastian AnthonyNov 10th 2010 5:40PM
Why thank you!
I've been a fan of yours since... well, since I read your smart girl's guide :P
Sebastian AnthonyNov 10th 2010 5:51PM
Good review -- I missed the bit about friends being sorted alphabetically. I noticed them randomly shifting around as friends came and went... but yeah, that's pretty lame!
Violet BlueNov 10th 2010 6:03PM
I was astonished when I saw the alpha order! I mean, the standard column is organized by who is online. A drag-and-drop for my *actual* friends would be the ticket.
I think this was designed by people who don't get that the social experience is... well, desired to be more like a social experience IRL. We want to pick who we hang out with, and that is always changing.
They also obviously don't have many women on their team. When your online status is "target" you have to have tools to help you filter who has access to you, your status, and your information.
Sebastian AnthonyNov 10th 2010 6:22PM
Just imagine how cool it would be, if you could go into 'browsing lolcats mode', and have the friends list shift into a group that you want to share lolcats with.
Then you could shift into 'browsing pictures of hot girls/boys' and have a different set of friends... and 'browsing tech news'... and...
Violet BlueNov 10th 2010 6:55PM
Ooooh, did you get a rude email from RockMelt's PR flack yet? I just did!
Sebastian AnthonyNov 10th 2010 7:00PM
As I just tweeted (and it no doubt fell into the void of your gazillion followers), no -- no rude mail.
Maybe they are looking for my email address...
Violet BlueNov 10th 2010 7:39PM
Oh no, I only follow a few people so I caught your reply! I am sure RockMelt's efficient and careful PR people will get to you in a timely fashion. Happy to put you in touch if you want to be called 'inaccurate' too!
IMO, what a crap way to do PR. When someone trashes your product, emailing to say they're 'wrong' is not the approach to win anyone over.
Sebastian AnthonyNov 11th 2010 7:26AM
Aye -- if anything, they just guaranteed that any of your future reviews are equally as negative. Don't they know anything about human psychology...?!
If they had just sent an email saying 'Thanks for the input. We'll be sure to send you along the next version when it's ready for testing' they might've squeezed another, more positive review out of you :)