WEBVTT - RockMelt Enters the Browser Wars 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.880 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:17.920 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:20.480 Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Pellette and 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:23.360 I am an editor at house stuff works dot com. 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:27.400 Sitting across from me, it's always his senior writer, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:31.000 Whatever happened to Saturday night when you dressed up sharp 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:35.639 and you felt all right, I'm not going to answer that. 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:39.959 Let's go and talk a little bit about a browser 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:43.040 that's made the news recently. And by recently I mean 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:48.120 in early November of two. Thank you. We do have 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:50.320 lots of people who catch up, That's true. They go 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:54.560 through the entire archive, so somebody awesome. And then that 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:56.360 means that every time we get that wave, we get 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:58.360 the people writing in and saying, hey, whatever happened to 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:01.720 the old listener mail intro? We wanted to talk a 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:05.840 little bit about rock melt. Yes, now I wrote about 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:09.120 rock Melts and the blog. You do read our blog, 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:13.120 don't you? Um? Some time ago? At that point, it 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:15.840 was a few months ago now, and it was one 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:18.120 of those things that people were sort of starting to 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:22.440 talk about the possibility of a new browser coming on 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:27.280 the scene to compete with the already entrenched Internet Explorer, Safari, 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:32.640 Chrome and Firefox. Now. Part of the reason that people 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:36.520 were talking about this was the involvement of a certain 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:42.600 gentleman who um is certainly no newcomer to the browser 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:47.840 wars and that would be Mark and Yes. Yes uh so. Mr. 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:51.960 Andreeson was one of the people who developed Netscape, the 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:56.720 Netscape Internet Browser, yes, and before it, the Mosaic Web browser, 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:01.080 which many of our listeners may not even be familiar with. 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:05.960 It was a project um that started within basically as 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:10.639 a school project, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, um 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:16.080 and it was pretty much the first viable web browser. Um. 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:18.480 I say pretty much because I forgot to go look 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:20.880 and find that out. But I'm almost certain that it 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:23.400 is the first viable browser. And it did turn in 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:28.960 it did involve the evolve into the the Netscape commercial 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:34.120 web browser. Um and uh. Of course Mr Andreason dropped 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:37.120 out of the spotlight for that particular thing, went on 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:40.480 to become a tech entrepreneur, moved on to other projects, 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:43.680 and now he is one of the investors in Rock Melt. Yeah. 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:47.240 The story was broken back in August of two thousand 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:51.800 nine my Miguel Health over UM and and at the 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:56.400 New York Times, and he mentioned that uh, that Andreason 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:00.240 had decided to put some money, invest some money into 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:04.040 this this startup venture, and the product was going to 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:06.320 be called rock Melt. Now at the time, back in 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:10.600 two thousand nine, there were very very few details about 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:15.000 the browser that that we were privy to. But even 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:17.800 then we knew that it was going to be a 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:19.639 web browser and that it was going to have some 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:23.560 form of integration with Facebook. Yes, that that it was 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:27.200 going to require that you sign in through a Facebook 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:31.040 I D in order to use the browser UM, which 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.640 is interesting that we we actually knew that much detail 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:36.600 back then. It was also interesting that it was apparently 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:39.520 news to Facebook, or at least that's that's you know. 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:43.440 The executives that that helped tried to contact said that 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:48.040 they had no involvement with rock Melt whatsoever. Well, I 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:50.640 think one of the things to point out about that 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:53.960 UM is that may not be such a big surprise 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:59.480 considering the availability of the application programming interface yes a 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:04.680 p I UH from Facebook. Basically, you can bake a 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:09.440 lot of Facebook connectivity into your project. Of there are 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:11.960 different kinds of project web projects, and in this case 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:16.000 of software project um without because Facebook has already made 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:19.800 that available, so they don't necessarily have to have that upfront. 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:23.280 They can already be working on that without uh, you know, 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:26.400 giving Facebook the heads up. So you might wonder, well, 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:30.799 what would possess Mr andrees and to invest a significant 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:34.039 amount of money into a new browser? After all, as 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:37.479 Chris was pointing out, the browser market has no shortage 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.560 of contenders. Yes, I mean you still have Internet Explorer, 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.720 which is still the dominant browser on the market, although 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:48.200 its share is declining. It's no, it's no longer um, 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:51.719 it's no longer I would say that it's no longer 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:56.040 assured its place as number one. There there's a chance 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:58.479 that other browsers could take that over for a while. 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:00.320 Look like it was gonna be Firefox to do that 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:03.080 because it was making steady gains, and then Google Chrome 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:07.280 hit the the market and that has managed to do 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:11.360 quite well as as well. So you might think, well, 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:17.040 what would possess anyone two support a browser when we 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:19.320 already have so many on the market. Not necessarily that 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:22.440 the browser, the new browser wouldn't be better. It might 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:25.640 be better, but sometimes it doesn't matter. You come out 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:29.120 with a superior product, but the other product is so 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:33.480 entrenched in the market that it doesn't matter. You could argue, 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.320 and people have argued that this is the case with 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:39.480 MP three players. There are people who say, I'm not 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:41.719 necessarily one of them, but there are people who say 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:46.280 that the Apple line of iPod products our inferior in 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:51.760 some ways to similar products. Correct And using that argument, 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:53.719 you might say, well, wait a minute, this, this other 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:58.719 MP three player has more features and has a greater capacity, 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:01.960 lower price point, what or whatever features it might have 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:04.960 that are different from the iPod, why is it more popular? 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:08.039 And really the iPod has just become entrenched in the 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.240 MP three market. Um, same sort of thing with the 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:14.119 web browsers. So what could make Mr andrees and think 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:19.000 that the rock melt was a worthy endeavor? And really, 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.240 I think the answer comes down to the fact that 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:24.679 people are using the web differently than they were fifteen 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.920 years ago. That's true. You know, back then it was 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:30.320 all about you go to a web page, you read 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:32.680 the content, and you may not ever go back to 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:35.000 that web page ever again because the content would pretty 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.880 much stay the same, right, right, and you might do 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:41.039 a little bit of internet shopping, but there wasn't a 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:42.960 lot in the early days. I mean, it wasn't until 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:45.240 the late nineties that started to take off. And then 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:47.880 of course you had the Internet bubble and uh and 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:50.120 after the bubble burst and a lot of companies, well 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:54.200 business that that really took a huge that made a 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.560 huge dent in in online shopping for quite some time. 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:02.640 So really, the element I think that has changed the 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:06.520 web the most in the last few years is social networking, 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:10.320 right at least that's that's one of the easy things 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:14.000 to point to when people talk about web two point oh. 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:16.720 In most cases, what they're talking about is some sort 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:22.200 of social media technology that is embedded in a web page, 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.760 like for example, blogs were what I think a lot 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:28.160 of people consider sort of an early web two point 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:30.840 oh technology. So you write your blog post and you 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.160 give you leave the comments open so that other people 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:38.160 can comment on your site, and it starts a dialogue 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:43.120 between the reader and the author and between the readers 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:46.800 themselves too, and then from there we've gone through other 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.920 types of uh web two point oh technologies, but that 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:53.440 was that's sort of one of those things comments on 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:57.720 shopping sites, for instance, and of course the social media 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:03.040 sites including my Space, friend stir, Facebook, Twitter, and all 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:07.440 the myriad other sites including you know, things like flicker 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:11.720 and YouTube, where the primary purpose is not necessarily to 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:15.960 have social networking, but that it's a huge, huge aspect 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:19.360 of that. And I think, uh, you're right. I think 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:22.800 that is supposed to be the This is the hey, 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.080 we haven't used your favorite word in awhile, convergence of 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:30.520 social media technology and the browser, so that the social 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:33.679 media part is always on, no matter what site you're visiting. Yeah, 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:36.360 And that's that's the basic idea of rock Melt, and 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:40.760 that that explains why there's this close relationship with Facebook 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:42.880 where you have to sign in to Facebook in order 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:45.439 to use the rock Melt browser the way it's intended 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:48.480 to be used. Um. Now, Chris and I both have 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:51.440 access to the rock Melt browser as we record this. 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.839 It's currently in beta test mode and it's invitation only. 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:58.800 Um And and that's just a for for right now. 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:01.600 That that's actually sort of a new development too. It 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:07.439 wasn't even open to beta testing, uh participation until probably 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:11.160 just a few days before recording this. We had a 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:13.800 few days to play with it, but it's enough time 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:17.480 to really kind of get a first impression. Now, the 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:20.520 way the browsers laid out is kind of interesting as 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:23.520 opposed to you know, most browsers have the main window 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.520 is all the web page, and then you'll have a 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:28.720 maybe a bar at the top and possibly one at 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:33.280 the bottom that would allow you to do some navigational features. Right, 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:38.480 you have your your web page controls, the browser controls themselves, um, 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:40.360 and then an information bar at the bottom where you 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:43.480 see your address and if you have plug ins, which 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:46.760 is you know, very very popular for Firefox and Chrome 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:51.320 especially as well as other browsers too, but primarily, but 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:55.600 primarily those they're they've made themselves very open to that. Uh. 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:57.920 You know, you'll have those you might see those on 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:04.360 an additional panel or or toolbar, um. But yeah, for 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:07.680 the most part, that's you know, it's all part of that. Yeah, 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:10.600 the rock melts a little different. Uh. Now when you're 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:14.000 looking at the main body of the browser, when you're 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:18.440 looking at the actual content. Uh, it's going to look 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:21.880 very familiar to anyone who's used Chrome because rock Melt 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:25.600 is built on Chromium, which is the open source code 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:28.839 that Chrome itself is based upon so you can think 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:32.480 of rock Melt and Chrome is sort of cousins. You know, 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:34.760 they're not directly related. It's not that rock Melt is 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:37.560 a Chrome built it's just using the same base code 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:41.120 that Chrome uses. Right as of right now. Um, according 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:45.559 to Seth Rosenblad c net uh, rock Melt, the current 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:48.760 data zero point eight point three four point eight three 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:52.800 three is built on Chromium six. There you go. Um, 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:55.640 you can take that to the bank folks. Of course, 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:57.400 probably by the time well, I mean it's in beta, 0:10:57.480 --> 0:10:59.440 so by the time this goes live, that will probably 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:02.520 be updated from that point. Um, actually it may have been. 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:05.280 That's a few days ago from now, so that aren't mean. 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:09.400 Beta's tend to move pretty quickly, and sometimes sometimes they're 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:12.760 very tiny changes that are not perceptible to users. It's 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:14.680 all on the back end and it you know, we 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:18.320 don't ever really notice it. Uh. Well, anyway, that's that's 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:22.200 the main portion of your your browser. But unlike other 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:26.679 or unlike most browsers, rock Belt also has edges or 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:30.800 little panels along the side that allow you to access 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:35.200 um uh extra content. Uh. And by extra content, I 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:38.520 mean things that you have specifically designated as being interesting 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:40.960 to you. So you have your Facebook friends on your 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:43.000 left side, all the ones who are currently online, which 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.560 allows you to chat with them using Facebook Chat. As 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:48.640 a matter of fact, it will show you you get 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:52.280 the familiar, well semi familiar if you're used chat programs 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:56.040 that will probably be uh comfortable for you. You'll see 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.160 a dot next to their name. Um, I thought I 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:05.280 had that turned. Mr Plett needs to mute his iPad. Okay, 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:09.040 So if you if you look at the left side, 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:11.800 you'll see your your Facebook users, and you'll you'll see 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:14.599 their photos, you know, the thumbnail photos, and there'll be 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:17.080 a green dot if they're online and a clear dot 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:20.600 if they are not. At least that's the way I remember. 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:23.000 I believe, I believe you are correct, and so you can. 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:26.400 You can initiate a Facebook chat directly from your browser. 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:28.600 You don't have to be on your Facebook page in 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:31.040 order to do it. And then on the right side 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:35.840 are some icons that will include things like Facebook status 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:40.160 is as well as direct um interactions on your Facebook page. 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:42.880 So let's say that you posted a status update, You'll 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.800 have one icon that will alert you if people uh 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:49.520 respond to that stas update or if or like it 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:53.000 or whatever, or if they post your wallpost directly, that'll 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:55.760 come up under one icon. Under a second icon, you'll 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:59.440 be notified whenever your friends are updating their Facebook pages, 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:02.720 so you have two icons for Facebook. Then you you 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:05.120 can also link to your Twitter account if you have one, 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.000 so you can get Twitter updates that way, and the 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:10.840 browser itself will even give you live updates. A little 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:13.920 window will pop up with the the update, whether it's 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:17.640 a Stats update or a Twitter update, um, those those 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.800 will come in in real time. You can also subscribe 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.080 to RSS feeds this way, and you will have a 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:25.920 little icon that will tell you whenever the web page 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:28.200 that you've subscribed to has been updated, and you just 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:30.320 click on that little icon, it'll pull up the most 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:33.720 recent content. So the the idea here is you can 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:37.920 browse one web page and be alert to all the 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:41.120 updates on the other web pages you're interested in, and 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:43.000 you can keep up to date with them without having 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:46.240 to keep popping around to you know, different, you don't 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:48.120 you don't have to physically go to each web page 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.480 to check because you have the little alert system there. 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:54.520 And I'm kind of curious to see how that's gonna 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:58.160 play out because in general, websites don't like it when 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:00.959 you can find out what information has been updated without 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:05.080 actually visiting them, because that can come into some problems 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:09.240 with advertising deals and impressions. So it'll be interesting to 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:14.640 see if that has any if there's any resistance from 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:20.040 website administrators to this new browser. Resistance is futile. Yes, 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:22.880 I heard that somewhere. I heard it as well just 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:28.680 now in fact, well, um so, reactions from the tech 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:33.560 press have been sort of mixed. Yeah, there's there's some 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:37.000 people I think who really really dig it. They but 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.240 they're using it in a very specific way. They're using 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:44.720 it specifically to keep track of all the social networking 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:49.400 stuff they do. They are not technically using it as 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:52.320 a browser, or at least not not relying it upon 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:56.040 it as their new browser. Almost every review I've read 0:14:56.040 --> 0:15:01.400 that was positive called it a great a great Facebook browser, 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:05.520 not necessarily a great web browser. Um and that's kind 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:09.240 of how I use it. I no, I was just 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:13.200 gonna say that. It's sort of funny to say that 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:18.280 because it's primary purpose is as a web browser. So 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:23.000 I think basically the difference being the social media aspect. 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:26.480 I think That's why it comes off that way, is that, um, 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:29.160 you know, people are supposed to be thinking of it 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:31.560 in those terms, and of course you know, we're being 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.440 asked to think of it, you know, especially that the 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.600 journalists are thinking of, well, what's different about this? The 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:41.280 the chromium functionality seems to be pretty much the same 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:44.360 for me, uh, you know, in my experience as it 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:46.320 has been. But it does give you a little bit 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:48.960 more oomph when you're looking at things like, well, do 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:51.800 you want to like this thing that you're looking at? 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:55.480 You know, sort of. It just makes it more simple 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:58.240 to do that without having to look for, you know, 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:01.000 the like button. Yeah, you can. You can share web 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:04.360 pages directly to your Facebook page. Let's say that you're 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:07.600 visiting a site and you're reading, let's say, um, uh, 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:10.120 let me get a good website, um, how stuffworks dot com. 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:12.880 Let's say you are visiting how stuff works dot com 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:17.160 and you're reading a really cool article like how Asimo 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:19.960 works by Jonathan Strickland. So you're reading how Asthma works 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:22.280 by Jonathan Strickland on how stuff Works dot com and 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:24.680 you're thinking, this is a really neat article. I would 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:27.720 like to share this with my friends and within rock Melt, 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:29.800 you can do that just by clicking a little share button. 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:33.160 It's part of the browser itself. You don't have to 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:37.120 look for a share button on the article. You don't 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:39.280 have to copy the u r L and go to 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:42.800 your Facebook stas page and paste it manually. That way, 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:45.880 it's built into the browser directly, which is kind of 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:47.720 a neat feature. You can also do that with things 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:49.840 like you can you can tweet things directly that way 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:52.320 as well. And it has its own built in u 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:56.000 r L shortener. I believe, although I haven't really played 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:57.560 with that, I heard that there were some problems with 0:16:57.600 --> 0:16:59.200 the u r L shorten or at least other people 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:02.160 were experiencing ms. They were testing the links that we're 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:05.560 being shortened, and we're having trouble getting to them, especially 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:08.720 from browsers that were not rock melt. Um. I have 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:12.600 not personally tested that, so I only I've only that's 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.439 secondhand knowledge to me. Yeah, and it's beta too, so 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:19.359 you should expect there if you if you're trying this 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:23.359 out for yourself, if you also haven't an invitation to 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:25.280 use rock melt and you've found it to be buggy, 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:27.720 I mean, that's really to be expected, but we haven't 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:31.160 even reached a release candidate yet, so so what we're 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:35.640 using is the earliest usable build from outside of its 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:41.600 own internal testing area. Uh. It's one other thing I 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:45.200 thought I would mention before we talk more about about 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:50.240 the the our impressions of this UM and I'm sure 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:53.439 there's an easy way to get around it. Those edges 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:55.520 that we talked about, the left and right edges, Right, 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:58.080 they tend to cut off the edge of the web 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:01.080 page you're looking at. Yeah, bugs me too. It means 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:04.399 that you have to you have to scroll horizontally as 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:08.639 well as vertically. Well, it depends too. I feel compelled 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:11.439 to point out that the world seems to be moving 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:16.560 toward the UM the wide screen aspect ratio, so I 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.080 think that's going to matter less in the future than 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:21.440 it does for those of us who are you still 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:23.520 using some sort of screen with a four to three 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:25.760 aspect ratio. Right, that's a good point. Yeah, if I 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:30.399 were using a newer computer, then perhaps I wouldn't have 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:34.280 this issue. I'm not going to say anymore about that 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:38.959 particular situation. I mean, it's okay that my screen is 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:42.080 primitive and that half my keys don't work and I 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:45.120 have to avoid words with the letter E in them. 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:49.720 That's fine, that's fine, I'm I'm all right with them. 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:52.240 My prediction, my my prediction that you're going to get 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:53.880 a new computer by the end of the year. I'm 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:56.879 running out of time. That happened. Yeah, that's that's looks 0:18:56.880 --> 0:18:59.639 like that's going to lend in that ex category. Um 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:02.520 and used to that if you listen to our recap 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:06.320 show from the beginning of this year. So, um, there's 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:09.880 one thing that I found interesting that's not directly about 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:14.760 rock melt. Um. I am somebody who likes to try 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:18.600 out all kinds of new, uh techie things, which probably 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:21.800 surprises very few of our listeners. Um, you know, just 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:25.359 to to give him a shot. And the browser wars, 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:30.240 especially since they've become free. Um are I think a 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:33.760 really neat opportunity to really compare one piece of software 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:36.360 to another. So it's every time a new browser comes out, 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:38.320 I'd like to give it a shot if it's free, 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:42.600 And I tried one some years ago that actually has 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:45.680 a lot of this functionality built in already. UM. I'm 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:47.720 sure you, Jonathan have heard about it, but some of 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:53.080 our listeners may not have. Yes, I'm gonna guess it's Flock. Yes, indeed, Flock, 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:56.480 which actually has been up for Webby Awards and a 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.399 number of other awards because it's got a lot of 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:04.119 the features already built in. It's got social networking capabilities 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:10.040 for uh, Facebook, Twitter, UM, in addition to others including Flicker, 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:15.080 UH and YouTube and UM. It actually migrated not too 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:19.040 long ago, just a few months ago, from a flock migrated. Yes, 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:26.600 the flock migrated from Nice from the Mozilla platform to Chromium. 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:29.600 In fact, it is using the same build of Chromium 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:34.520 six that that UM, the current version of rock melt 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:37.280 is using. And this again, as according to Mr Rosenblatt 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:41.480 Um and UH. The thing that I've seen I've seen 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:45.400 a lot of the other tech writers say is that, well, 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:48.760 flock has quite a few users, but really it's not 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:52.200 even making much of a dent in the market. So 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:55.840 why does rock melt feel like it's browser is going 0:20:55.920 --> 0:21:00.400 to beat that, you know, limited success of Flock. I've 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:03.400 tried flock and I like it a lot, I would 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:07.720 say that, Andreason's involvement is probably part of it, because 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:10.120 I mean, here you have someone who was behind one 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:14.120 of the most successful actually the story of of Netscape 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:16.199 Navigator would be an interesting one to cover at some 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:19.160 point in tech stuff because you talk, you talk about 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:23.680 a web browser that seemed to be the dominant browser 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:26.560 and it wasn't ever going to change, and and then 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:32.119 it changed rather dramatically and relatively quickly. Um, the fall 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:36.400 of Navigator was pretty impressive. Actually. Uh So, I think 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:39.480 Andreson's involvement probably has something to do with it. And 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:43.280 and I get the feeling that the Rock Melt folks 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:48.000 are really media savvy. They're very very good at getting 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:50.720 their message out there, and so a lot of tech 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:55.480 companies kind of lack that that ability to interact with 0:21:55.520 --> 0:21:57.960 the media in a compelling way. It's because you know, 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:01.560 there's a lot of them are are very technically savvy, 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:04.159 and they're very good at putting together the product, but 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:07.160 they're not as good at selling the product to the media. Um. 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:11.719 There are other companies that are phenomenal at selling product 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:16.920 to the media, like Apple, which also makes amazing products. 0:22:16.960 --> 0:22:19.760 I'm not that wasn't a knock against their technical savvy, 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:23.160 but they are very very As the day we're recording 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:27.600 this podcast, Apple managed to to to get the media's 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:30.960 interest in a big announcement that turned out to be 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:35.879 the Beatles coming to iTunes yep. Um, Yeah, it's funny 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:40.040 to note, um actually that it wasn't that long ago. Now, 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:42.159 I mean this, this is one of Apple's announcements that 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:45.720 was pretty quiet and by the terms that they're frequent, 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:50.440 uh show stopping pr events that they managed to put on. 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:55.280 Um that they opened Safari up for plugins, and I 0:22:55.359 --> 0:22:59.560 think that, uh, Apple probably sees the writing on the wall. 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:03.280 I mean, they're they're not even third in the browser wars, 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:07.280 but I mean they have a reasonable market share, but 0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:11.560 it's still tiny compared to the big guys, and uh, 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:13.520 you know, I think that's one of the reasons they 0:23:13.560 --> 0:23:17.080 are opening themselves up to allowing plugins is for things 0:23:17.119 --> 0:23:20.480 like this social networking functionality. Yeah, to kind of head 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:24.679 off the impact that browsers like rock Melt and flock 0:23:24.840 --> 0:23:30.119 could have. Um. I think the rock Melt and flock 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:34.200