New Web Browser: RockMelt

November 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

RockMelt is a brand new web browser that is arguably the biggest threat to Google. After jumping into beta Monday, the new "Facebook browser" received mixed reviews from bloggers. Some bloggers do not believe that RockMelt has fundamentally changed the browser game so far. Also, because RockMelt is still a beta, the public can still expect many refinements.

RockMelt has received $10 million in funding from some well known Web executives, most notably, Andreeseen Horowitz, from the venture capitalist firm.

The reason RockMelt poses such a threat to Google is that Google's biggest competitor is probably Facebook, and Rockmelt is based on Chromium. In fact, the browser is set up to look like a fancy implementation of Google Chrome. In order to first launch RockMelt, you have to sign in with your Facebook account, after consenting to Facebook permissions, like allowing the site to access your information. By doing this, Rockmelt stores and synchronizes your data on its servers.

ZDNet's Violet Blue speaks about the new browser:

"The real heartbreak with RockMelt came when we realized there was no way to really fine-tune the mess known as our Facebook contacts. RockMelt allows you to see who is online, and separate out “starred” favorites into a separate list. But then that list is in alphabetical order, and that’s that.

What about all those people you don’t care about who you are sorta friends with but don’t want to share anything with? They’re right there! That guy – you know, that guy – the one who comments on everything you do and is online all the time just in case you are too? That guy who makes you feel like Facebook is humping your leg every time you log in? He’s right there!"

Blogger Chris Dawson reflects on his use of RockMelt. He claims that when he tries to sign in through his Twitter feed in one of the sidebars, when he clicks the embedded link to "Go to Twitter," it fails to sign him in using the credentials provides him the feed.

Dawson, in his blog article for ZDNet, discusses the terms of the competitive landscape for the new browser:

To make your own opinions on RockMelt, go to the RockMelt website and request an invitation to the browser.

Filed Under: Social Media, Uncategorized, Web Trends Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Global Voices, Ethan Zuckerman

September 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Although we know the web connects the whole world, most of us end up connecting mainly with people similar to ourselves. In this video, blogger and geek Ethan Zuckerman shares his desire to link the whole of the wider world, using smart tactics to open up your Twitter world and read news in various languages.

Ethan Zuckerman is an activist and blogger, living in Western Massachusetts and working in Cambridge as a research fellow at the Berkman Center. As co-founder of Global Voices, Zuckerman says, "I'm interested in ways that citizen's media can address longstanding biases in the news media."

Rebecca MacKinnon and Zuckerman founded Global Voices in 2005 when they were both fellows at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. "Initially," says Zuckerman, "we'd planned to build an aggregator of blogs from around the developing world, based on my interest in Africa and her focus on China. As more people got involved with the project, it's become something much larger and more exciting: a global community of citizen media authors, an advocacy group that works to preserve freedom of speech online, a media development organization that promotes participatory media in developing nations, a vast and distributed translation project, and a crazy set of friends from every corner of the world. It's been a joy to be involved with and is one of the projects I'm proudest of."

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,