Fantastic Flock — A New Hero Web Browser

You can say that the folks from Flock have been ahead of their time when they started developing a social web browser two years ago. The world wide web became the ‘social web’ when its suggested new version Web 2.0 was termed. And Web 2.0, before anything else, is about technologies that are focused on social interaction and community. It is a revolution, achange in the Internet as a new platform and in how both software developers and end-users use the web. And the recently releasedFlock 1.0 is just about Web 2.0. Flock is not just another browser. The Flock people claimed it’s a social web browser. Our current plain browsers haven’t changed at all to keep up with the changing web and the behavior of users. And Flock is exactly the upgrade we need now to engage with and experience the new web.

The Social Web Browser

The creators of Flock call it the “Social Web Browser” due to its ability to interact with popular social networking web services. Flock is a web browser that integrates with numerous social services such as Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Typepad,WordPress.com, Blogger, and so on. Flock’s social-networking-related features such as the People Sidebar and the Media Bar are very useful especially if you’re addicted to social network sites as these features facilitates in pulling all of your favorite people, places and content together in a convenient view.

The People Sidebar lets you be the first to see changes in your universe.

The People Sidebar is where you can see your friends in different networks and see who updated or uploaded what. It informs you when your friends post photos or videos in your favorite social networks without visiting those sites. The Media Bar, which opens and displayed beautifully between the tabs and the toolbars, is where you can browse media such as your friend’s photographs and videos. There’s also the Accounts and Services Sidebar where in you can choose what social service accounts you want to add to Flock.

The Media Bar lets you view anybody’s media stream.

Blogging and RSS

You can also use Flock to post directly to your WordPress blog, Blogger, Typepad, and other platforms. Yes, Flock has a built-in blog editor and there’s even font support. The Flock’s built-in RSS Reader in also neat and the Feeds Sidebar organizes feeds very well in folders.

Flock’s built-in Blog Editor

Web Clipboard

Another feature that makes Flock an impresssive web browser is the Drag and Drop Web Clipboard sidebar wherein you can drag text, links, and images into it and save them for later use.

The Drag and Drop Web Clipboard

My World

My World acts as a personal page or home page. It gathers all of your favorites sites, feeds, and media in one convenient single page view.

My World serves as a home page, and more.

Extending Flock’s Capabilities

Flock is a web browser heavily based upon Mozilla Firefox and other Mozilla technologies. And since it is built on the same engine as Firefox, Flock’s creators say most of the Firefox extensions will work properly in Flock. Isn’t a good thing that you can load your favorite Firefox extensions in Flock? As long as they work. But be warned though. Some extensions might affect the performance of the browser. I just installed the Google Toolbar. No warning dialog pops up. Sweet. The Google Toolbar works!

Flocking Now

Flock, being called the Social Web Browser, promises easy connection and quick access to the things you want and at the same time gives you more freedom and control for a fast and efficient browsing. I’ve been using Flock as my default browser for over a week now. Before Flock, I was toggling between Firefox and Opera, though I still have to use Firefox primarily because of RoboForm. And for fast browsing I used Opera. Opera is faster than Firefox or IE7. But Flock proved to be a real fast and efficient browser. Now, if only RoboForm has support for Flock…

You can download Flock 1.0 here: http://www.flock.com —and start flocking now.

ASIDE

If you have VCP-310 or 70-620 on your credit, doing 642-552 is a piece of cake. You will clear the eligibility criteria for PMI-001 in no time at all. With VCP-310 in your belt, you are also eligible to go for 70-284.