SleepyEgg

The last thing the world needs is another spinoff browser with niche features, right? That's exactly what I thought when I learned about RockMelt, a new Chromium-based browser for the social networking crowd. RockMelt takes the average browsing experience and adds a number of social sharing layers on top of it so that you're always connected—digitally and mentally—to your Facebook and Twitter buddies no matter what you're doing on the Web.

That's not a joke: they're all right there in your right and left columns, just waiting to share stuff with you while you share stuff with them. Sound cluttery and claustrophobic? It is—until it's not. And as much as I wanted to dislike RockMelt when I went into the limited beta Monday morning, I ended up, well, sort of liking it.

The whole goal of RockMelt is to integrate Facebook into the browser, with some Twitter on the side and a basic RSS reader if you really want. If you're not really a Facebook person, then this is definitely not the browser for you and you should go back to your regular browser. However, if you find yourself constantly logging into Facebook or Twitter to post updates, see what links your friends are sharing, and share links of your own, then it could prove quite useful. It all depends on your own usage patterns.