rockmelt

Rockmelt, Anyone?

By Mark Evans in Browsers, Social Media 3 Comments Tags: , , , ,

In November, Rockmelt burst onto the scene as the new (and latest) social browser. It helped the start-up is financially backed by Marc Andreessen, and it’s a browser with a strong dose of Facebook.

Since Rockmelt made its debut, it has disappeared from the scene. There’s no chatter about Rockmelt, no sign it is gaining market share, and no one in my social-happy circles seem to be using it. In other words, Rockmelt seems to have melted as opposed to rocketed.

So what happened? Why has Rockmelt fizzled after such a strong kick-off?

I think part of it is Rockmelt’s heavy focus on Facebook, making it a Facebook browser as opposed to a social browser. It may also be due to the reality the browser market is extremely competitive with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari dominating the scene. This makes it difficult to establish a foothold unless a new browser is fantastic or launched by a strong player such as Google.

Perhaps the biggest problem with Rockmelt is it wasn’t launched by Facebook. So while it’s a Facebook-dominated browser, it’s not part of Facebook. My sense is Rockmelt would be a much bigger success if was the much rumored F-browser as opposed to a plucky start-up that was seemingly created to be acquired by Facebook.

If Rockmelt was the F-browser, it would have the backing and clout of Facebook and, as a result, would have an easier time convincing Facebook user to adopt it. It would probably have tighter integration with Facebook and be closer aligned with with Facebook’s new features.

Instead, Rockmelt sits in an awkward place. It’s trying to be a social browser but it’s a difficult place to establish a foothold. For people who remember Flock (aka the original social browser), it’s not clear whether people are looking for a browser that embraces social media.

At the same time, Rockmelt’s biggest obstacle may be people are happy with the other browser choices. It may be Rockmelt was a victim of bad timing in that the new kid on the block status was claimed by Chrome, leaving Rockmelt on the outside looking in.


The Challenges of Being the New Kid on the Block

By Mark Evans in Social Media, Web 2.0 No Comments Tags: , ,

I have a confession to make. Despite all the fuss about RockMelt and Blekko recently, I haven’t spent much time on either service. Both seem interesting: RockMelt is a “social browser” that integrates your social media activity, while Blekko is a new search engine that takes a different approach than Google, including the ability to “tag” results.

The problem is a combination of not having enough time to check out RockMelt and Blekko and, as important, the challenge in changing hard-coded behaviour. When doing a search, the default is Google; when using a Web browser, it’s Chrome or Firefox. These are tools that are an engrained part of my Web toolbox, which makes it difficult to add new or different tools – even tools that could be more interesting or different.

This is likely something most Web users face. Once you start using particular services or software, it can be difficult to switch to something new. We are creatures of habit, and that extends to our use of the Web.

This makes it an significant challenge for new players to establish a foothold, even a modest one. Not only does a new service have to be significantly better and/or different, its benefits and features need to be clearly articulated, and it has to get the story distributed and told to as many people as possible to gain any kind of traction. Even then, people who learn about a new service may decide to ignore it or check it out later.

The question is what can a new service do to break into a market with a dominant player? Here are some thoughts:

1. It needs to be superior, different or provide a better user experience. I would argue a service that is easier and more intuitive to use has more of a chance to succeed than a new service that tries to compete by having more bells and whistles.

2. It needs to fill a need that has been solved properly or in an elegant way. Perhaps the best example is DropBox. While there have been lots of online storage options, DropBox has captured many users by offering a service that provides needed the functionality in a user-friendly way. The free offer of 2GB of storage provides an attractive option for many people, along with DropBox’s innovative and easy-to-use file-sharing technology.

3. The messaging has to be crystal clear. A new service must quickly articulate what it does and the benefits it offers, otherwise time-strapped consumers will move on. The message needs to be dead simple so people immediately say “Yes, I get it”. A good example is Freshbooks, whose Web site proclaims it is “The painless way to track time and invoice clients”. I’m also a big fan of a well-produced 60-to-90-second corporate video that tell people what a service does and why someone should care. These videos can be expensive to make but they are well worth the investment because they can be used for a variety of purposes.

4. The service needs to reach a wide audience based on the idea only a small percentage will pick up on it. This means a company has to craft stories that will resonate with the needs of particular target audiences. As well, opinion leaders have to be brought into the mix to take advantage of their influence and large audiences.

5. There has to be as little “grit” as possible. If the home page makes it difficult to understand what a company does, it will turn off a potential user. The same goes for a registration process that is too complex or time-consuming, an “About Us” page that isn’t short, sweet and clear about the benefits for the user, or a bad FAQ. Anything that could cause a potential user to walk away has to be eliminated.

The bottom line is it can be an enormous challenge being the new kid on the block. It’s not enough to be better or different. That said, it is not an impossible task to establish a foothold by taking the right approach. With some luck and enough people spreading the word, new services have a shot of making it even in the shadow of a large and dominant player.

Is the World Finally Ready for the Social Browser?

By Mark Evans in Browsers, Social Media No Comments Tags: , , ,

In 2005, Flock launched amid extensive…and then is promptly bombed.

Released as an alpha (a dumb idea no matter how you try to slice it), Flock attempted to become the “social browser”. One of its many shortcomings is it tried to be all things to all people, which only confused everyone. While Flock is still around, it never recovered from its inauspicious debut.

Fast-forward five years and we’ve got another much-hyped social browser, Rockmelt. There are two things that differentiates Rockmelt from Flock. One, the world is probably ready for a social browser whereas Flock was likely ahead of its time. Second, Rockmelt is backed by Marc Andresseen, the guy who created the Netscape browser before it was swamped by Internet Explorer.

My first impression of Rockmelt is mixed. I guess the biggest hurdle is the tight integration with Facebook. To get Rockmelt, you need to provide your Facebook username and password, and provide Rockmelt with access to a lot of your data. As a recalcitrant Facebook user, this is far from ideal – it would be better to have a standalone download.

The upside is Rockmelt looks solid, and avoids Flock’s mistake of trying to do too much. It looks and feels like a Web browser, which may appear like a straightforward proposition but, nevertheless, is important given people will compare how it performs to IE, Firefox and Chrome. (See the screenshot below that displays a Facebook stream.)

It also has solid integration with Facebook and Twitter. You can post updates on Facebook and Twitter directly from Rockmelt, as well as check out your Facebook and Twitter streams, and see the status of Facebook friends within a stream that sits on the left-hand side of the browser. I’m not totally clear about feeds feature, which strikes me as a frill as opposed to something that will appeal to many users.

Rockmelt’s biggest challenge, of course, is trying to gain a foothold in the highly-competitive browser market, particularly given that Google’s Chrome has changed the dynamics by stealing Firefox’s title as the hot, new kid on the block.

There is no doubt Rockmelt’s usage and investment prospects hinge on its Facebook integration. If positioned and marketed properly, Rockmelt could become the browser for many of the 540 million Facebook users looking for a browser that meets their need to browse the Web and be connected to Facebook.

By becoming the Facebook browser before Facebook could create one itself, it seems like a no-brainer Rockmelt will eventually be purchased by Facebook.

Of course, this is the way Silicon Valley works when everyone is so connected. A nudge here, a wink there, a few million dollars in venture capital, and, voila, the next hot start-up is purchased by one of the Web giants.

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