The estimated reading time for this post is 3 minutes
The Internet is a pretty big place, so wouldn’t it be great to have a service that finds the best of the Internet for you? Yes, you could wade through the Internet, page by page, trying to find what interests you, but that might take a lifetime or two. Instead, check out Rockmelt, a service that scours the Internet to find the best websites, articles, photos, videos and other content for you.
What Is Rockmelt
Rockmelt is a customized curation service that finds content on the Internet for you and then displays it in a beautifully animated stream. This free website displays articles of interest to you in a pinboard format, making it easy for you to find quality content. Rockmelt finds articles from sources such as CNN, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Us Weekly, Forbes, BBC, Al Jazeera, Reuters, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and others, as well as content shared by your friends on Twitter and Facebook.
You can customize your content by category. Rockmelt lets you choose the topics that are most interesting to you to display in your Rockmelt stream. You can select from categories such as Lifestyle, News, Travel, Photography, Science, Funny, Parenthood, TV & Movies, Tech & Geek and others.
You can check out other categories from the Explore button in the top menu. Choose any of the topics to be shown posts only in that area of interest.
Want to get the scoop on the latest hot topic on the Internet? Click Popular which shows you what’s hot on Rockmelt. You’ll be “in the know” about fun articles, interesting news, developments in your field and cool photos.
Article snippets and photos are displayed in your stream and you can click on any post to see the full article. You can comment and share it with others using social media or with fellow Rockmelt users. You can also access each article on the web via a link at the bottom of the post.
Click on the down arrow to hide a tile from your stream or keep it to read later.
Your Opinion Counts
Rockmelt learns what you like and modifies your stream accordingly. You can vote on articles using six difference choices: like, lol, want, aww, wtf, hmm. When you vote on an article, your Rockmelt friends will see your vote. You can also choose to display articles according to how people voted.
Need a giggle for the day? Display only articles where people have voted “lol”.
Sharing
A big part of the fun of discovering interesting content is sharing what you’ve found with others. Rockmelt makes sharing easy for you with a Share button for each article linking to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google Plus and email.
Connecting with Others
You can follow other Rockmelt users to see their favorite articles and how they voted. You can mention their @name in a comment to alert them about an article. Connect Rockmelt to your social media sites to find and follow friends who are using Rockmelt.
Getting Rockmelt
Rockmelt is so new that it’s still in Beta (test) mode and available by invitation only. Good news, though. Wonder of Tech readers can use this Rockmelt invitation link to sign up for an account. It’s free and available worldwide. You can also visit the Rockmelt website and enter coupon code: =fu0cxt to sign up.
Sign up for Rockmelt, link your social media accounts, choose five or more topics of interest and let Rockmelt find great articles for you!
Rockmelt App
In addition to having a website, Rockmelt also is available using its free app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. An Android app is in the works.
Bottom Line
Check out Rockmelt to bring you the best of the web, help you discover fun and interesting articles, and get the latest scoop.
Have you tried Rockmelt yet? What’s your favorite feature? Have you discovered any interesting content on Rockmelt? Let us know in the Comments section below!
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Tech In Motion
Last night I attended a fascinating Meetup of the group Tech In Motion called The Stories of Women in Tech: Part One. The Meetup featured five women with careers in tech who explained how they got started in tech and shared their career paths with us. Speaking at the gathering were:
- Jessica Ivins @jessicaivins
- Elise Wei @Not_Pele
- Melissa Morris Ivone @OperationNICE
- Jumoke Dada @JumokeRED
- Sue Grinius-Hill @SueGriniusHill
If you’re into tech and in the Philadelphia area, make sure to check out the Tech In Motion Meetup group to find out about future events.
Hi Carolyn,
I’m not sure if I would use that, it’s a lot like Pinterest. I did add my site’s RSS to their feed though, just in case! I usually write every day, but this is my second day off this week. I don’t care! I am planning to do something different. I researched and wrote a review on an art exhibition last week. I might publish that soon. The pictures are good and the inspiration is an old Inca prophecy. I was asked to write it, but I’m not quite sure where it should be published. If someone doesn’t tell me, it will go on my site. I walked up to the 4th floor of the art gallery twice to do that review! I’ve been getting more interested in art, I’m in a local art group now and I’ve been invited to the local ‘arts fest’. I have plans for new pictures too. 🙂
Hey Mike, Rockmelt is quite different from Pinterest as Rockmelt is more of a news feed while Pinterest brings you pretty pictures. But I have been finding some posts I find on Rockmelt on Pinterest, just as I share wonderful images from your blog on Pinterest! :-bd
That’s so cool about your new art group, Mike. Will you be exhibiting through them?
Carolyn – This is something different, and I think it will be quite useful for us bloggers to have all our related interests piled up and compiled in one place.
I think the filters what they have will work for me, I would like to read only certain type of articles in a period of time, and it really supports that.
I havent yet tried it out, I think I will now, after reading your review.
Hi Praveen, I think you’ll really like Rockmelt. It’s a fun way to discover what’s interesting to you. The site is animated and presents the information in a very attractive way. I also like how it learns your interests.
You come up with the greatest resources, tips and finds in this blog, Carolyn. I’ve just joined Rockmelt through the invite link provided in this blog post. I look forward to more tips from you in the future on how to use this effectively for business (rather than fall into a big black hole being entertained). Thanks again for being so brilliant with your finds and easy to understand posts for those of us who are not technology wizards.
Hi Nanette, I’m so glad you enjoy the tech finds that I share here. I try to find the best tech I can to share with my readers and it’s gratifying to hear when someone enjoys what I’ve found.
I hope you get a lot out of Rockmelt, Nanette!
Hey Carolyn,
Can’t say I’ve heard of Rockmelt but thanks for the quick overview. By the way, congrats with getting a plug on Adrienne Smith’s blog 🙂
I generally use Zite or Flipboard on the iPad for content curation but this is on the list of items to check out over the weekend.
Hi Kapil, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Thank you, yes, I am honored that Adrienne linked to me at her wonderful site. She is a dear friend and a respected colleague in the blogging community.
Yes, I’m a big fan of Zite, but Rockmelt is available on the web too which makes it handy when I’m on the computer. I hope you enjoy Rockmelt, Kapil!
Yep, this is a pretty cool service and for the information that is shared on sites like New York Times, etc. then this is a great source for locating them all in one place. I know as a blogger I like to be informed when doing my research and although I’d prefer to learn from other bloggers there is some information that I can only find on sites like these.
Thanks for another great find Carolyn!
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Blog articles do appear on Rockmelt so you can discover information there as well. You can also add feeds to make sure you don’t miss your favorite blogs.
Glad you like Rockmelt, Adrienne!
Carolyn, more great work! This is just what I was looking for. I think it has the potential to be a lot better than Google alerts in that everything is aggregated nicely for you all on one page and it looks fantastic. Keep going like this and I’ll have to make your site my homepage!!!
Hi Frank, I’m so glad you like this blog and Rockmelt. I think you’ll find the service very useful for bringing you relevant content.
Thank you for your kind words. Be sure to check out There’s No Place Like Your Home Page! for information on how to change your home page! 😉
Hi Carolyn,
I’m so glad I have found you site. You know how to bring new and valuable things to the table. Here I can find a lot of new software, trends, cool sites etc. It’s like a goldmine for me.
I’ll try this content curation tool and see what is all about. Then, I hope you won’t mind if I write a kind of tutorial about Rockmelt on my site.
Now here’s what i want to say about the topic of new online tools:
1. Content curation is very important. Even more, it’s vital for your business. So I am constantly looking for quality content curation tools. Let’s hope Rockmelt “rocks” indeed and it melts the rock of finding new and quality content.
2. One thing I don’t like about new tools and software is the constant effort to be everything. When a new software is launched on the internet it is difficult to say what it really is.
That’s because they do not focus on one function but try to develop many, many more. They try to be: a search engine, a curation software, a social media, a community, a memebrship site etc.
I think this is wrong. You must focus yourself on one function, first and reach success. If your goal is to curate content, than try to be the best content curation tool available.Don’t try to be a social network.
Trying to do two or more things in the same time is the recipe for failure.
3. When I use a content curation tool the only thing I am interested in it is finding high quality content. I’m not interested in being social. I don’t want to express my feelings, I don’t want to vote, I don’t want to share. I want only one thing: valuable content. After I got the content then, yes, it’s time to do something with it. Process, extract, share, write etc.
Thank you very much for this post. Btw, it is indeed about wonders of tech.
Have a nice day
Hi Silviu, I too am glad that you found this site. I do try to find the best tech out there to share with my readers. I have some great topics ahead that I think you’ll really enjoy.
You’re right, content curation is important. We should focus on the topics that are the most important to us and services such as Rockmelt can help us do just that.
I also agree with you about sites focusing on one purpose, though I do appreciate when a site has buttons to allow me to share on social media easily. I just visited a site that didn’t have social media sharing buttons and was frustrated because I wanted to share the article.
I would be very pleased if you wrote about Rockmelt, Silviu. What better way to show that you found value here at The Wonder of Tech?
Thank you so much for your kind words and thoughtful comment, Silviu!
Hi Carolyn,
This is a very new and interesting service to find the best in the internet and what I like best about what your review tells is that Rockmelt learns what you like and modifies your stream accordingly. This is so cool and I will definitely sign up through the invite link you provided in this post.
Thanks Carolyn for sharing these great resources with us.
Be Blessed,
Neamat
Hi Neamat, Great point, that’s one of my favorite features too. I really like the Rockmelt learns your preferences and adjusts your stream accordingly.
I’m so glad you signed up for Rockmelt, Neamat. I hope you enjoy it!
It looks interesting, I will take a look; even tough I don`t really need another content curation service. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Marco, You might find you like Rockmelt quite a bit because of the ability to share and focus on news that’s interesting to you. Good luck with it!