Rockmelt

Last updated

Rockmelt
Developer(s) Tim Howes, Eric Vishria
Final release
2.2 / May 15, 2014;10 years ago (2014-05-15)
Engine WebKit (based on KHTML)
Operating system Android, iOS, Windows
Type Social media web browser
License Freeware [1]
Website rockmelt.com (archived on April 2, 2013)

Rockmelt is a discontinued proprietary social media web browser developed by Tim Howes and Eric Vishria based on the Google Chromium project, incorporating social media features such as Facebook chat, Twitter notifications and widgetised areas for other content providers such as YouTube and local newspapers. The Rockmelt web browser project was backed by Netscape founder Marc Andreessen. [2] In April 2013, Rockmelt discontinued its desktop web browser, replacing it with a collaborative project bringing together social elements from various sources. [3]

Contents

Rockmelt was created by Rockmelt, Inc., located in Mountain View, California. [4] The final version, 2.2.0, was released on February 9, 2013.

On August 2, 2013, Yahoo! acquired Rockmelt. Rockmelt apps and its website were shut down after August 31, 2013. Yahoo! said in a statement that it planned to repurpose Rockmelt's software for use in various existing products. [5]

History

Reception

Rockmelt was positively received by Tom's Guide, though they noticed that the RAM consumption was higher than Chrome or Firefox. The browser's "Edges" were called "the three most prominent features of the RockMelt browser". [14]

Notebook Review, while comparing Rockmelt to Flock, gave Rockmelt 4.5 stars out of 5, with the absence of extension support being the most noticeable issue with the browser. "The social networking integration is worlds better than Flock's, and ... there are at least some very useful features that RockMelt leverages. The news feed really is well done, and the Facebook handling is certainly better than Flock." [15]

In a beta preview by Techcrunch , Rockmelt received mixed reviews mostly due to the browser using Chromium as its base, with a number of concerns whether the browser would find its audience. [16]

In a short review by PCWorld , Megan Geuss stressed the overall Facebook integration of the browsers, which would not work for every user, while also praising the performance of Rockmelt: "the fledgling browser works really quickly. It did an even better job than Chrome at processing HTML5". [17]

A PCMech review of Rockmelt stressed how easy it was to share content via Rockmelt, and the browser received praises for the option to add additional feeds. "It is easier than manually going to Twitter or Facebook and is most certainly easier when managing feeds for the web sites you visit often. On top of that, it looks good." [18]

Related Research Articles

Netscape Communications Corporation was an American independent computer services company with headquarters in Mountain View, California, and then Dulles, Virginia. Its Netscape web browser was once dominant but lost to Internet Explorer and other competitors in the first browser war, with its market share falling from more than 90 percent in the mid-1990s to less than one percent in 2006. An early Netscape employee, Brendan Eich, created the JavaScript programming language, the most widely used language for client-side scripting of web pages. A founding engineer of Netscape, Lou Montulli, created HTTP cookies. The company also developed SSL which was used for securing online communications before its successor TLS took over.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Andreessen</span> American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer (born 1971)

Marc Lowell Andreessen is an American businessman and former software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser with a graphical user interface; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He co-founded and later sold the software company Opsware to Hewlett-Packard; he also co-founded Ning, a company that provides a platform for social networking websites. He is an inductee in the World Wide Web Hall of Fame. Andreessen's net worth is estimated at $1.7 billion.

This is a comparison of both historical and current web browsers based on developer, engine, platform(s), releases, license, and cost.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flock (web browser)</span> Discontinued web browser integrating social networking and Web 2.0 features

Flock is a discontinued web browser that specialized in providing social networking and Web 2.0 facilities built into its user interface. Earlier versions of Flock used the Gecko HTML rendering engine by Mozilla. Version 2.6.2, released on January 27, 2011, was the last version based on Mozilla Firefox. Starting with version 3, Flock was based on Chromium and so used the WebKit rendering engine. Flock was available as a free download, and supported Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and, at one time, Linux as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opera Mini</span> Mobile browser developed by Opera Software

Opera Mini is a mobile web browser made by Opera. It was primarily designed for the Java ME platform, as a low-end sibling for Opera Mobile, but as of 2022 only the Android build was still under active development. It had previously been developed for iOS, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone 8.1, BlackBerry, Symbian, and Bada.

Tim Howes is a software engineer, entrepreneur and author. He is the co-creator of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), the Internet standard for accessing directory servers. He co-founded enterprise software company Opsware, internet browser company Rockmelt, and children's education company, Know Yourself. He has co-authored two books, several Internet RFCs, and holds several patents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opera (web browser)</span> Free web browser

Opera is a multi-platform web browser developed by its namesake company Opera. The current edition of the browser is based on Chromium. Opera is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. Two mobile versions are still active, called Opera Mobile and Opera Mini. Opera also has a news aggregator app called Opera News with Aria, a AI-search engine..

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skype Qik</span> Video messaging service from Skype

Skype Qik was a video messaging service by Skype. It was created by the company, Skype Technologies, who acquired Qik. The service, offered for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices, allowed users to exchange video messages between individuals or within a group.

ooVoo was a video chat and messaging app developed by ooVoo LLC and owned by Krush Technologies, LLC. ooVoo had applications for Android, iOS, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, and Facebook. The original Microsoft Windows app was released in 2007. It was discontinued on November 25, 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bump (application)</span> Discontinued file sharing app

Bump was an iOS and Android mobile app that enabled smartphone users to transfer contact information, photos and files between devices. In 2011, it was #8 on Apple's list of all-time most popular free iPhone apps, and by February 2013 it had been downloaded 125 million times. Its developer, Bump Technologies, shut down the service and discontinued the app on January 31, 2014, after being acquired by Google for Google Photos and Android Camera.

Flipboard is a news aggregator and social network aggregation company based in Palo Alto, California, with offices in New York, Vancouver, and Beijing. Its software, also known as Flipboard, was first released in July 2010. It aggregates content from social media, news feeds, photo sharing sites, and other websites, presents it in magazine format, and allows users to "flip" through the articles, images, and videos being shared. Readers can also save stories into Flipboard magazines. As of March 2016 the company claims there have been 28 million magazines created by users on Flipboard. The service can be accessed via web browser, or by a Flipboard application for Microsoft Windows and macOS, and via mobile apps for iOS and Android. The client software is available at no charge and is localized in 21 languages.

Eric Vishria is a general partner at Benchmark, a venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. Previously, he was CEO and co-founder of Rockmelt and served as vice president at Yahoo following Yahoo's acquisition of Rockmelt.

Snapette is a location-based shopping mobile application and website that acts as a digital resource for shoppers, enabling users to find nearby stores, products, and exclusive offers. Snapette was founded in 2011 by Jinhee Ahn Kim and Sarah Paiji and has partnerships with stores in California, New York City, and London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Morin</span> American entrepreneur and angel investor (born 1980)

Dave Morin is an American entrepreneur and angel investor. He is best known for founding Slow Ventures and the social network Path. A former manager at Facebook, he co-created the Facebook Platform and Facebook Connect.

Mozilla is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, publishes and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting exclusively free software and open standards, with only minor exceptions. The community is supported institutionally by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation and its tax-paying subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pokki</span> Free digital distribution platform

Pokki is a free digital distribution platform and Windows Shell extension by SweetLabs, Inc. that alters the start menu to a look and feel like the second generation start menu used before Windows 8. The extension also adds additional functionality to the start menu including search, favorites, and popular applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunrise Calendar</span> Discontinued calendar application

Sunrise is a discontinued electronic calendar application for mobile and desktop. The service was launched in 2013 by designers Pierre Valade and Jeremy Le Van. In October 2015, Microsoft announced that they had merged the Sunrise Calendar team into the larger Microsoft Outlook team where they will work closely with the Microsoft Outlook Mobile service.

This is a timeline of online work-focused networking service LinkedIn.

References

  1. ↑ "Rockmelt Terms of Service". December 13, 2011. Archived from the original on September 8, 2012.
  2. ↑ Helft, Miguel (August 13, 2009). "Netscape Founder Backs New Browser". The New York Times.
  3. ↑ Ong, Josh (April 11, 2013). "Rockmelt Abandons Social Browser, Launches New Web Feed and iPhone App". thenextweb.com. Retrieved July 5, 2016.
  4. ↑ Facebook community page showing Rockmelt, Inc.'s headquarters
  5. 1 2 3 Geron, Tomio (August 2, 2013). "Yahoo Acquires Rockmelt Social Browser, Will Shut Down Apps". Forbes.
  6. ↑ "World, Meet Rockmelt". Rockmelt blog. Rockmelt. November 7, 2010. Archived from the original on November 8, 2010. Retrieved November 9, 2010.
  7. ↑ "No more waiting in line — RockMelt now in Open Beta!". March 11, 2010. Archived from the original on December 2, 2012.
  8. ↑ Geron, Tomio (April 19, 2011). "Rockmelt's New Mobile Browser--A New Mobile Home Screen?". Forbes.
  9. ↑ Levy, Steven (October 11, 2012). "Rockmelt Thinks You're Ready for a Modern Mobile Browser". Wired.
  10. ↑ "Rockmelt finally brings its deconstructed browser to the device I wanted it on back in October: My iPhone". December 20, 2012.
  11. ↑ Copeland, Michael V. (November 4, 2013). "Marc Andreessen and Rockmelt Are Betting the Desktop Has a Future". Wired.
  12. ↑ "Rockmelt brings the Best of the Internet to Android". June 19, 2013.
  13. ↑ "Microsoft showcases developer opportunity on Windows Azure, Windows devices". Microsoft . June 27, 2013. Archived from the original on July 31, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
  14. ↑ "RockMelt Browser Guide". Tom’s Guide. November 15, 2010. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  15. ↑ "RockMelt Social Browser Review". Notebook Reviews. December 28, 2010. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Between A RockMelt And A Hard Place: The Quest For The Social Browser". Techcrunch. November 11, 2010. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  17. ↑ "RockMelt Browser a Swift Choice for Social Media Junkies". PCWorld. November 12, 2011. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  18. ↑ "RockMelt Browser Review". PCWorld. November 18, 2010. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.