Vysr has launched a new version of its browser extension application, RoamAbout 2.0. The downloadable browser application, which is available for Firefox, Linux and Internet Explorer, allows you to integrate your favorite apps like Gmail, and social networks like Twitter and Facebook within the browser and then interact with the apps contextually while on any web site. We are offering 1000 private beta downloads here.
Launched last year, Vysr strengthened the browser plugin more recently by adding OpenSocial applications to the platform, letting third party developers deploy their applications on the browser extension. Once downloaded, the plug-in’s OpenBar sits at the bottom of your browser. RoamAbout 2.0 is a useful extension to your browser because it lets you see a constant stream of real-time information from social networks, email applications, RSS feeds, the latest and greatest YouTube videos and Google news.
On the bar at the bottom of your screen, you can get custom tailored updates from friends in your Facebook network, tweets from people you follow on Twitter, RSS feeds from your favorite blogs and news sites, and notifications when you get an email in your Gmail inbox. And you can get these non-intrusive updates while browsing on any webpage. RoamAbout basically eliminates the need to constantly switch to different tabs to check email, updates, and tweets. The notifier on RoamAbout OpenBar alerts you to events of interest from your apps such as new emails in your Gmail account, direct messages on Twitter, or status updates in Facebook.
RoamAbout also provides an easily personalized side application platform, called a “tray,” which can easily be collapsed, where you can access a snapshot any of your favorite applications or be led to the main page in another tab. RoamAbout currently has a choice of 46 applications that you can integrate with the plug-in, including Facebook status updates, Twitter, ESPN, Gmail notifications, GoogleMaps and more.
The RoamAbout application tray also enables applications to bring you content in the context of your web interest. Similar to the new “Accelerators” in IE8, applications can be launched in the context of the website you are on, or in the context of a word highlighted on the web page. The tray feature lets you do some pretty cool things. For example, if you highlight “Bill Gates” in a TechCrunch news post and then click on the YouTube app, related YouTube videos will be displayed right on the page. Or you can select location information on a web page, click on the Google maps app in the tray, and then share location information with friends on Facebook or Gmail contacts. You can also highlight any location on any webpage (i.e., San Francisco), click on the RoamAbout application “Fetch,” and then the app will return all Facebook friends who live in that location.
RoamAbout seems to be similar in a lot of ways to Flock, a social browser that also integrates email and social apps like Facebook and Twitter, except that RoamAbout isn’t a stand alone browser and is easily integrated into Firefox or IE. Founded by Guda Venkatesh, Vysr has several big-name investors and advisers in Silicon Valley, including investor Ron Conway and Rajeev Motwani, Stanford computer science professor and a member of the founding Google Research Team.
Here’s a screenshot of what RoamAbout 2.0 looks like on a Firefox browser:
Just tried it. The tool is pretty cool. It froze and crashed my browser a coule of times when trying the wikipedia widget.
Hi Peter,
I am a Product Manager at Vysr and wanted to thank you for checking out RoamAbout 2.0! I just messaged you on twitter re. the wikipedia issue you are having.
I like the Twitter stuff. Pretty useful! I wanted something like this for Twitter since quite some time. Though I am not sure how Vysr would manage the call limitation set by Twitter.
Their logo looks like a pair of underwear.
More like jockstrap
Loved the OpenBar thingy. The alerts feature is also nice. Would love to see more apps such as last.fm, meebo, etc.
Trying it now,
I like the idea of it so far, but am finding it a bit slow.
You almost have all your frequently used Social apps put together in one place for your disposal. Nice concept and a pretty useful plugin.
Looks promising, but I’m going to have to do a side-by-side with Flock (which I’ve neglected of late).
My personal worry is that I’ll wind up with too many ways to stay connected. A friend of mine will tell me the same thing about RoamAbout as she did about Twitter: I need this like a fish needs a bicycle!
I’ll sure put it through its paces though.
Thanks for the invite!!!!
Seems pretty neat, but I already use twhirl, seesmic’s FB Adobe air app n ;snackr’ .. to get all the functionality Roam about supports, but then it really depends upon each individual how one wants to manage things.
Very impressive tool. I remember going to the Vysr offices for Startup Camp Palo Alto over one year ago!
their logo looks like a thong
Glad I’m not the only one…
more like a vagina… but the concept is good
Seams pretty neat – reminds me a lot of Mashlogic, which is a browser plugin so doesn’t take up screen real estate.
> available for Firefox, Linux and Internet Explorer
Huh?
A little clarification: RoamAbout v1.0 works for both Firefox and IE. The (Invite) RoamAbout v2.0 works for Firefox ( Windows, Mac, Linux). IE coming shortly!
This logo looks like a vagina, sorry.
or fallopian tubes.
Or a thong
Nice and impressive cool tools.I think i want to try it out.
Paresh, i also thinking the same thing lol
Nice to see innovations around Mozilla extensions. Seems like RoamAbout can be a very promising and fruitful platform for app developers as well as content publishers.
trying out now, interesting concept.
“Firefox, Linux and Internet Explorer”
One of these things doesn’t belong…
Really nice to have those buttons on the side, easier to share things. Cool plugin!
TechFilipino
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I liked the twitter
Pretty impressive but I would rather use something like Ubiquity which lets me do more tasks inside the Firefox than any other extension ever made.
There have been such extensions which try to minimize the number of open tabs by allowing you to find the information inside a webpage and I’m not sure whether Vysr has got enough under its hood to compete against Ubiquity.
The twitter functionality seems like the only thing that is being appreciated here by the folks but why won’t I use Twitterfox.
Ubiquity and iMacros work well for me, too.
Going to check it out, this looks cool.
Looks like I’m missing something.. lets see what this thing capable of … checking the site now.
Seems good, Can drag & drop 47 app here.Great Job!!
Their logo looks like diapers.
Does that logo look like a thong to anyone else?
I’ve been using RoamAbout since the article got published this morning. I think RoamAbout gets the idea of user-centric browsing. Their live tweet feature is very useful for heavy duty tweeters because you can tweet anytime while you also watch live tweets from your network. As far as their applications, I like hulu and pacman. Nice time-wasters
The user cannot currently re-order applications on the “tray”, which I think could be useful. I sent them a comment about this and they replied saying they will look into this.
very useful app. The Facebook functionality is great. I like the info-streaming functionality; doesn’t totally get in the way of my browsing. Also like that it’s on IE.. Can’t wait to see how Vysr builds on this concept.
I pounced on the Vysr beta download link I caught a glimpse of while browsing through the Tech Crunch email I subscribe to and have been testing it out to
what so far has been surprisingly pleasing results.
My main objection to the innumerable offerings of so-called enhanced browsing tools I’ve ultimately abandoned has been the overwhelmingly sense of intrusiveness, information overload they’ve all
invariably demonstrated but Vyser seems to offer
an approach that really works for me with all of the benefits, none of the drawbacks associated with browser tools in this niche.
I like Vyser a lot and will continue to use it as it seems poised for great things.