The World, as One

The recent Nipponese earthquake and tsunami have again highlighted the increasing role of social media channels in major emergencies. And judging from the cataclysmic (from-now-to-2012) predictions mushrooming all over, if true, it is evident that channels such as Facebook and Twitter are very far from reaching their own apocalypses. These channels are breaking geographical and cultural barriers, connecting people in ways never before thought possible.

How many of you lived Japan as it unfolded? How many of you would have never known where "Haiti" is on the world map had it not been for Facebook or the famous blue little bird of fast news and updates? Never before have our different continents been so convergent. Social networks are, by default, used to communicate info directly from those who are experiencing the catastrophe in real time, to those who want to and can help in real time (wherever they might be), without delay. No red tape. Does that not put a totally new perspective to the term World Wide Web?

As such channels become more and more vertically integrated - housing everything from your social life, entertainment, education, news, world events, etc. under one roof...it is no surprise that Facebook is becoming increasingly popular to host a business’ website. Companies seeking to create conversation, gather actionable data and build a sustainable pool of customers know that these channels are THE new information highways. Perhaps success will come to those who learn how to listen, observe trends and encourage the flourishing conversations, but most importantly to those who start seeing the world as one.

RockMelt: What’s so special about it anyway?

We were recently accepted to receive an early invitation to try out RockMelt. In case you hadn’t heard of it, it is a new Internet browser with social integration linking you up to your social networks. RockMelt integrates multiple plug-ins allowing you to be more social while browsing the web 2.0. For example, you can be logged-on to Facebook on the right side panel for as long as you wish, chatting with multiple friends while browsing other websites. The plus is that you don’t have to stop what you are doing to check up on what is going on around the World.

Moving over to the right side panel, RockMelt has your plug-ins – from your Twitter, Facebook and YouTube feeds, to an interesting website feed feature. So basically, if a website has a RSS feed, you can easily add it to the sidebar to get quick updates without being side tracked.

Things we liked:
1. Being connected to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube (etc) while browsing other websites.
2. The overall feel of the browser itself
3. The share button at the top near the navigation bar (sharing content with your friends becomes extremely easy)
4. It is a mixture between FriendFeed and Google Chrome.
5. It is a blazing fast browser
6. Integration. Integration. Oh, and did I say Integration?
7. It has a nice user interface.

Things we didn’t necessarily like:

1. It feels like Google Chrome with a plug-in, but then again isn’t that the point?
2. To get an invitation, you have to log-on via Facebook.
3. Having to log into Facebook every single time you open the browser gets annoying.
4. The Twitter experience isn’t quite there yet.

The folks at RockMelt claim to have re-imagined the browser, and I will definitely give them kudos for that because… they have. If you’ve tried RockMelt and don’t think this to be true, surely you will admit that they have at least paved the way for the new social browsing experience.

Oh yeah, guess what? We have one additional invite left. Anyone who is interested in trying this Internet browser out, leave us a comment below and we’ll hook ya up!