A new web browser, RockMelt, has built an entire user experience around Facebook, Google, Twitter and social sharing.

In light of the recent launch of Facebook-powered Bing results, there is a lot of buzz among internet users about social search – and marketers like the implications of word-of-web referrals within results pages. Now, a new web browser, RockMelt, has built an entire user experience around Facebook, Google, Twitter and social sharing.

RockMelt requires a Facebook login. The company explains that it has a strict privacy policy and that web browsing information is not shared with Facebook, nor is Facebook data shared with any third parties.

An explanatory video demonstrates that RockMelt displays thumbnails of users' Facebook, Twitter and other social accounts in a righthand vertical column. Users can add their own icons to customize their browsing experience. When they get updates on these social sites, they can view them in a side panel without navigating away from the web pages they are exploring.

Users can type queries into Google (the default search engine) in an upper-right search field. Results display in a narrow panel below the query box. When users click on results, the relevant websites appear to the left. In a sense, this feature is similar to the Instant Preview launched by Google today, allowing users to see pages without navigating away from other potential results.

Marketers may like how easy it is to share web content with social connections on RockMelt. A lefthand column shows users' Facebook friends. When users click on a friend's icon, they can easily send a message and opt to "include link to current page," or they can simply drag a video or image from the web onto a friend's icon to share it and include a custom message.

Social recommendations can help brands attract traffic to their sites, and visitors directed to sites by their friends may be more likely to convert. Brafton recently reported that 77 percent of internet-using Millennials say they turn to family members for shopping advice, and 64 percent say friends have the most influence over their shopping

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.