RockMelt Vs. Flock

The Internet is like space. Hell, it even has its own term, “Cyber Space,” and it - just like space - goes on forever. The four most popular Internet trends are; social networking, E-Mail, blogging, and internet shopping.

The Internet has grown along with these and many more features. Just recently in the past few years, it has evolved to help link them all together via - these little pestering things we all get invites for - apps. Link your Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Gmail, Blog, RSS feeds, and everything else to one account. But what happens when Chromium (An open source browser engine developed by Google) - changes all that?

Well it has. Chromium has helped to create one of the fastest & rapidly growing popular browsers (Google Chrome.) But thanks to this engine, other browsers have been birthed. Two of which are what we in the Technology world have labeled “Social Media Browsers." These are browsers that link everything; Facebook, Twitter, Email and so on, within the browser itself. These two revolutionary browsers I speak of are Flock & RockMelt.

Let’s start with Flock. This browser was originally built using Mozilla open source code that Firefox runs off of. But now runs on the Chromium engine. The installment of this browser is as simple and exactly the same as installing Chrome. But once you launch Flock, for the first time, you have the option of importing all your favorites, bookmarks, and other information.

It also has its own account feature. The Flock account keeps all your social networking and account information secure. It allows you to link your accounts to a general or master account. So you must log in to a master account (as it were) to access your social stream. Compared to Chrome itself, and taking into account all the streaming social network information this browser does and can take in, I’d say it’s pretty fast.

The only thing I don’t like about this browser is that upon importing all your information, I found my Bookmarks and the like to be a little… screwy. But hey nothing is perfect, especially if it is Internet related!

Next is my favorite browser. Obviously you can tell which one I like most already, and which one essentially “Wins” in this article. RockMelt is another Chromium powered browser. It has recently entered its public Beta stage. All you have to do is connect your Facebook profile via the RockMelt website, then wait to receive a Beta invite within the next few days. Most people seem to get it within 42 hours.

Then once you get the Beta invite, there is the standard Chromium browser set-up. Then here comes the catch, you pretty much have to give RockMelt supreme control of you’re Facebook. Admittedly I did think twice before hitting the approve button. Overall the RockMelt browser shares a lot in common with Flocks design, Menu, and User Interface.

There are a few UI problems, for example your social stream (Called EDGE) can disappear and become unavailable from time to time. The Twitter feed goes dead and at times can be completely useless. But all this comes down to is that it's a Beta program and still and has a lot of room to grow, improve - and has serious potential.

At the end for the day, I would suggest both of these browsers to anyone involved in the social media world, of the internet.

I give Flock a 3.5 out of 5, for a very original idea, and great features, that kept me browsing.

I give RockMelt a 4 out of 5, for a slim design, great integration and customization.