We were planning on writing about Rockmelt, a new social browser that is the modern-day Flock of Chromium, here on Techi today, but it appears that the browser is having a rocky start. After installing it, giving it access to Facebook, and finally starting the browser, the social magic that should have been has turned into disaster.
Where there is originally supposed to be a bar on the left and right sides of the browser to show me my friends and social website connections, there is nothing. In fact, much of the browser, at this point is useless. All I am left with is a little swirly icon on the top-left of the browser that gets me nowhere.
I’m not the only one. I’ve received several Tweets from people confirming that they are having trouble, too.
Instead of us praising Rockmelt, it has now revealed a critical flaw. The browser’s core functionality is completely broken at this point, and it is probably because it relies on Facebook’s API. It could be just a glitch in the system, or it could be something more serious like Facebook actually blocking Rockmelt. Either way, it reveals that the browser is not ready for the primetime.
Sadly, I can’t even use the “share” link on the browser to share content with friends, which is supposedly tied into the Facebook API as well.
Of course, this is a new product that is only being released to those who are invited, but I can already see that this is a huge problem. I believe Rockmelt talked about investing the time to consider other ways to “login” to Rockmelt, but I believe the company should forego any such attempt. The browser should not rely on any single service to operate, as is being proven right now.
It should just work. Instead, at this point in time, it doesn’t offer me anything but the same basic functionality as a Chromium browser. Sigh.
Anyways, below is a screen shot showing what the browser should look like. But this rocky start has already left a bad taste in my mouth.
Update: After a long time of reloading Rocketmelt, I finally got it to sign in correctly. So now this is actually what Rocketmelt looks like from my perspective, at least when it actually works:
I found the same problem myself today, however, by this evening the left side of the social media based browser is work, just not the ‘share’ option still. I actually love the browser and have already recommended it to friends.
yeah twitter login is not working for me too x((
LOL, the flames will go out eventually.
what happened to the twitter anybody knows?
Share, Facebook, Twitter, and search is working for me, but my feeds seem to be lagging quite a bit. Then again, this is why it’s in a sort of beta right now…
I’ve had absolutely no issues with it at all. Seems like a pretty cool browser actually.
This is really just too bad. lol
I’ve been running Flock all week and have had no problems at all! 🙂
You are being overly dramatic for a beta product. How about you stop whining and write something a little more intelligible.
Everything works fine so far with my RockMelt
I still don’t quite understand the purpose of rockmelt: It doesn’t actually do anything any other browser can’t do. In fact, relying on 3rd party software to even function seems somewhat foolish. Simply: Just use firefox and get addons.
I had a brief problem accessing Twitter at first, but it worked itself out after a couple of hours. So far, I’m really enjoying the browser and once the bugs are out, could totally see switching this as my default.
FAIL! Nice job Marc.
Thats quite a headline James. I personally don’t have any appeal in having my web browsing time distracted 24/7 with social networking. I don’t need my whole world updates by the second.
BUT
I think this article is a bit top heavy, in that the big call is made in the headline, only to find a bit of a complaint without much substance in the actual article. So it’s not even released to the public yet (fair enough that I haven’t seen anything that says “BETA” and it probably should) but to say it is “crashing and burning” when it’s not even necessarily finalised.
The twitter issues are all over their twitter page so that is nothing new.
As said before, this browser is not for me. Id rather install add ons for what I need, but this article just seems like an angry rant.
Weird I am using RockMelt right now, and it works…. I am using Windows though!
Been working fine on both my work Mac and home Mac.
No disrespect to Mr. Mowery of Windsor Virginia, but I’ll bet on Andreessen, the inventor of the very concept of the browser over him. I’m sure Rockmelt team is bummed about bugginess on first day of beta launch, but building a browser is a herculean task and it’s pretty dang good for day 1. As to Mowery’s assertion that it “could be something more serious like Facebook actually blocking Rockmelt”. Uhh, let’s see. I. Zuck’s #1 initiative right now is expanding the reach of FB Connect…see recent Social Fund announcement with Doerr. II. Andreessen is on the board of FB. III. Logically, FB loves the fact that a browser has been built with the sole purpose of expanding FB’s reach. IV. FB connect is notoriously difficult Hey Mowery, get informed…talk to developers!
Working fine for me now.
“Either way, it reveals that the browser is not ready for the primetime.”
Obviously not. This is a limited, invite only release of beta software. If you expect it to be perfect, then you’ll clearly be disappointed. I think it works amazingly well for a beta, but whatever flaws it has, I’ll report to the devs since thats the point of using beta software, instead of writing an article like this one.
when i use rockmelt 2 out of 5 times when i am looking at my friends bar on the left or chatting to people using the rockmelt chat (which is tied into facebook) it freezes, this then stops me from closing down rockmelt or doing anything on the browser. 🙁
can anyone tell me if this is happening to them, and if so what have they done about it?