A few hours ago, I received a RockMelt invite.
I installed it already and here’s my hand-on review on RockMelt.
Upon clicking the setup program I found myself connecting to FaceBook. This make me ask, is this a browser for sharing or a FaceBook browser?
After installation, RockMelt asked me to connect to my FaceBook account. I did. But. How about those who do not want this browser just for FaceBook? There’s Twitter and other social networking sites. I connected by browser to my Twitter account, too.
What is RockMelt? Really. Is it a social web browser as it claims to be?
Upon connecting, I was asked what permissions would I like to give to RockMelt to have access to.
What immediately shows up is a welcome message at the center of the browser. There are four menus there: friends, share, search, and news. At the center of it all is a globe.
I hovered on the friends menu and arrows showed up pointing to the left part of the browser, showing my friends who are currently logged-in in FaceBook.
When I hovered on the share menu, two arrows showed, pointing to the upper left part and to the upper part of the browser. These are share buttons.
I hovered on the search menu and an arrow showed up pointing to the search field at the upper right portion of the browser.
And when I hovered on the news menu, an arrow showed and it points to the right side of the browser showing all apps and feeds you’re connected with. FaceBook and Twitter feeds icons are displayed by default?
I was accustomed to using FireFox and Internet Explorer as web browsers. I was never a Chrome or a Safari fan. Well, to be honest, I use Safari on my mobile phone. I see it as the better browser for mobile phones.
FireFox and Internet Explorer has almost all buttons placed on identical location.
In using RockMelt, I found myself facing a web browser with no home, stop, and reload button. Almost all buttons are designed for social activities.
On the bottom left part of the browser is the “show all friends and pick favorites” button. If you click on it, it will show a tabbed version of your online friends, your favorites, and all of your FaceBook friends.
At the bottom of the menus at the right part of the browser is the “add feeds” button. If you click on it, it will show you all apps and feeds RockMelt is connected and let’s you add feeds there.
Can’t seem to find your way on this new social browser? Don’t worry. RockMelt has this quick guide “tutorial” for you.
RockMelt Experience. This is a good browser for those who often check their social networking accounts. It’s fast and easily navigable. I find it awkward that there’s no home, stop, and reload buttons. There are shortcut keys but for the not-so-savvy people, they might have a hard time.
Overall, it’s a OK web browser with a promising future. But. I’ll stick with FireFox for now.
Have you been using RockMelt already? Tell us what you think!
