14 DAY TRIAL // Despite the initial hype, and high-profile backing, RockMelt the social browser, has failed to make a huge impression on the browser world. Still, it managed to get a few hundreds of thousands of converts, so it's a start.
Now it's looking to get even more with the latest version of the browser, still in beta, which offers much better Facebook integration, thanks to a partnership of sorts with the social network.
The latest update to the burgeoning web browser brings a lot of new features and changes for Facebook users in particular. For example, the contacts list, which contains all of your Facebook friends has been moved to the right of the browser, from the left sidebar like before.
The list also displays more info, if you choose to, enabling you to get more details on your online contacts than just their profile images, the full names for example.
Another interesting new feature is the integration of the notification area from Facebook, notifications, messages and friend requests are now part of the browser, along with the counters indicating how many unread messages you have.
All of these can be accessed via the left side toolbar and, interestingly enough, if you're using RockMelt, they won't show up on the Facebook page as well. What's more, new chat windows open up in the browser rather than both in the browser and on Facebook, like before.
These new features are possible thanks to a new partnership between Facebook and RockMelt. No money has changed hands and there is no formal agreement, but the two companies are collaborating on improving the experience for RockMelt users.
"We are give people a way to share and communicate with their friends wherever they are," RockMelt told the New York Times. "Over time, you will see a lot of product innovation come out of the partnership with Facebook."