There’s a lot to keep track of online.
You probably have a Facebook account and an e-mail address or two. You might use Twitter or another service to share where you are or what you’re reading, thinking or doing. You follow the news and do some old-fashioned Web browsing.
I do all of the above (and more), so I’m always looking for ways to wrangle my tangle of online accounts.
That’s what I was hoping for when I tried RockMelt, a new Web browser backed by Marc Andreessen, who was behind the Web’s first commercial browser, Netscape. RockMelt aims to bring together social networking, news feeds and Web browsing.
Does it do the job? Mostly if you rely on Facebook for social networking.
RockMelt, which is available on an invitation-only basis for now, is built on the same foundation as Google Inc.’s 2-year-old Chrome browser. For general browsing purposes, you can expect Chrome’s pros (speed, stability) and cons (some sites don’t work, including the one for paying my cable bill).
Once you install RockMelt, you set it up by giving it permission to integrate your Facebook account. You don’t need to create a new account the way you do with Flock, a competing “social browser” that’s been around for five years. You can then choose to add Twitter and Gmail accounts. RockMelt stores information in the “cloud,” so your settings will automatically follow you to other computers.
On the right of the main browser window is what RockMelt calls the App Edge, where buttons offer access to social-networking sites and other Web sites. On the far left side is the Friend Edge, a column of buttons representing Facebook friends. Above the Friend Edge is your Facebook profile picture — click to send a Facebook status update or tweet.
The buttons in the App Edge point out unread updates…