Rockmelt is a discontinued proprietary

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

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developed by

Tim Howes Tim Howes (born September 21, 1963) 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 soft ...

and Eric Vishria based on the

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Chromium project, incorporating social media features such as

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

chat,

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notifications and widgetised areas for other content providers such as

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

and local newspapers. The Rockmelt web browser project was backed by Netscape founder Marc Andreessen. In April 2013, Rockmelt discontinued its desktop web browser, replacing it with a collaborative project bringing together social elements from various sources. Rockmelt was created by Rockmelt, Inc., located in Mountain View,

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. The final version, 2.2.0, was released on February 9, 2013. On August 2, 2013,

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...

acquired Rockmelt. Rockmelt apps and the website were shut down after August 31, 2013. Yahoo! plans to integrate Rockmelt's technology throughout various products.

History

* November 7, 2010 - Rockmelt for PC and Mac launches in private beta * March 11, 2011 - Rockmelt for PC and Mac launches in open beta * April 19, 2011 - Rockmelt for iPhone launches * October 11, 2012 - Rockmelt for iPad launches * December 20, 2012 - a new Rockmelt for iPhone launches * April 11, 2013 - Rockmelt for Web launches * June 19, 2013 - Rockmelt for Android launches * June 27, 2013 - Rockmelt for Windows launches * August 2, 2013 - Rockmelt is acquired by Yahoo * August 31, 2013 - Rockmelt mobile applications pulled off of web

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”. 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.” In a beta preview by ''

Techcrunch TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately $ ...

'', 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. In a short review by ''

PCWorld ''PC World'' (stylized as PCWorld) is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Since 2013, it has been an online only publication. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal tech ...

'', 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”. 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.”

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rockmelt Software based on WebKit Web browsers Beta software IOS software