The social networking craze has resulted in the development of many exciting and unique social applications. Different social networks, community-based sites, video-sharing sites and, last but not least, social web browsers – including Flock Social Web Browser – have been seen over the years. These social applications offer exciting services, but the idea of using a social web browser is not only exciting, it is also unique and valuable. This proves that Flock is rocking! Efficient browsing and exciting social networking together help users discover, connect and share the best of the modern web and give them more personal web experiences. Tabbed browsing, direct access to the popular social networks like Facebook and MySpace, a webmail feature, a media bar to search and watch favorite videos and view images and a blog writing editor makes Flock the ultimate choice for every internet user.

A look at Flock Social Web Browser

Flock web browser is a social web browser, built on the open source codebase of Mozilla Firefox. This browser features tabbed browsing, social networking and a Web 2.0 featured interface. This free social browser supports all the major platforms including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Currently, Flock 2 is available in the market based on Firefox 3. The CEO of Flock, Shawn Hardin, describes their venture:

“Flock is thrilled to announce the Flock 2.0 beta. Thousands of global developers and contributors have made Mozilla’s open source technology the best in the world. Now our users can experience the best of both worlds with all of the performance and security improvements of Firefox 3, combined with Flock’s unique social browsing experience.”

Flock is attracting people due to its unique and efficient features and services. Secure browsing and integrated social networking and media services like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogger, Gmail and Yahoo Mail makes it a one of a kind browser. Let’s have a look at the great features of Flock.

Improved and enhanced browsing

Flock, due to its Mozilla Firefox base offers an efficient browsing experience. It is fast, secure and has a user-friendly interface. It uses Gecko 1.9 web rendering engine and employs reduced memory footprint for fast page rendering. Flock offers great security services by validating site security within the address bar and through malware detection and blocking functionality. Its user interface employs Web 2.0 features like Favorites Manager and Download Manager to give users a rich browsing experience.

Powerful social networking

Social networking is the most promising feature of Flock. While browsing through Flock, you can open your webmail accounts, connect to your friends on different social networks and access the news feed of your choice. It supports all the major social networks - Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pownce, MySpace, Digg and Flickr. All social networking services are managed through the “People Sidebar,” “Webmail” and “Feeds Sidebar” buttons, which open their relevant service options in a vertical sidebar on the left side of browser without interrupting the main browser window.

Web 2.0 Rich Media Feature

With the “Open Media Bar” feature, Flock gives its users a rich and interactive media experience. It is the first browser that supports media RSS, which allows users to use photos and videos like regular RSS blog posts. When a user clicks the “Open Media Bar” button, it opens a horizontal bar on the top of the browser to preview and view different online photos and videos from popular photo/video sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr.

Social bookmarking & blogging

Social bookmarking and blogging is another handy feature of Flock. It offers a separate blog writing and editing tool where one can write and publish posts to all major blogs like WordPress, Blogger, Blogsome and Typepad. For bookmarking, it offers different services called breadcrumbs (pages and tags bookmarked by users), Watchlist (users are able to monitor other users’ bookmarks) and Groups (defined groups of Flockers linking to this category).

The downside of the Flock social web browser

Flock is no doubt a great web browser. Critics and common users alike are highly appreciative of its great features and excellent performance. However, it has also been criticized for its complex interface and slow speed. In his post, Flock Web Browser Eases Multitasking But Has Drawbacks, Walter S. Mossberg highlights the areas where Flock people should focus.

“But Flock isn’t for everyone, and it has some significant drawbacks. For one thing, you’d need a fairly large or high-resolution monitor to accommodate the Flock sidebar and media bar without reducing the size of the main browser window so much as to require too much scrolling.

“And, Flock has a busy, even frenetic, look that can be distracting and annoying. So many things are going on at once that it can be hard to concentrate on the main attraction: the Web page you are reading in the main window.

“Also, while Flock does indeed spare you from clicking back and forth as often among tabs in your browser, it doesn’t entirely eliminate clicking around. Its sidebar can display only one type of information at a time — social networks and photo-sharing sites in one view, news feeds in a second, the clipboard in a third, and Web bookmarks in a fourth. So you’ll have to click the sidebar’s own controls fairly often to check all of these, or keep going to the special My World page in the main window.

“Finally, Flock works with only certain social networking, photo-sharing and blogging services. While it does support most of the main ones, there are some glaring omissions. Hotmail, Windows Live Spaces and SmugMug, among others, are missing. And it doesn’t support any instant-messaging services at all.”

Flock is a great service and a unique browser. Its growing use indicates that it’s quickly becoming the default browser for every PC. There are some performance issues, especially related to speed and interface, but I believe that with a strong Mozilla Firefox base, Flock will soon overcome these problems. The future is centered in social media, and social media’s future is the Flock social web browser.

References:

Walter S. Mossberg. (2008). Flock Web Browser Eases Multitasking But Has Drawbacks. Retrieved Oct. 20th, 2008 from http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20080806/flock-web-browser-eases-multitasking-but-has-drawbacks/

Flock. Com. Retrieved Oct. 20th, 2008 from http://flock.com/node/62535

Bookmark It

Related posts:

1. Digsby – Another Promising Social Networking Tool
2. Twine- A New Entry in the World of Social Bookmarking
3. Socialtext 3.0 – The Enterprise Social Software
4. Social Networking - The End of Emails
5. Web 2.0 and Social Networking: An Overview