My first encounter with Flock was pretty disappointing. “Just an unstable beta full of useless stuff you just can do or get online, with the bare Firefox” - then the version 0.9 came out.
I’m now officially addicted
Import from Firefox
I’ve imported everything from Firefox with the automatic wizard. Then I’ve installed some extensions too: Adblock Plus, DownThemAll and FasterFox are working great. Other extensions are getting better support. I started surfing and then found out something unbelievable: I found “integration”.
Finally the web came to one place. It’s like all those technologies like RSS and APIs finally found sense. You just fire up Flock and start blogging without the need to log into your WordPress dashboard. You can review the latest photos from your Flickr contacts without leaving the site you’re browsing. You can tag and edit your del.icio.us bookmarks… and much much more.
You don’t need to set up all the accounts during the installation method (in the previous versions you had to). Now you simply log out and re-log in into your web accounts and Flock automagically detect them and enable them.
Browser 2.0
You can do all the above stuff with a standard browser, yes. But the Flock experience is way better. Flock is simply better. We had Web 2.0, now it’s Browser 2.0. It’s a browser for people who actively uses the web to communicate, for those who share their lives and create content, richness over the networks. The web 2.0 was build with people in mind and this is a browser built around the users. Finally you don’t just surf the net anymore. You are using it effectively.
What I’d like to see in the future
Flock is great but it lacks features. You can’t find these features in Firefox or IE7 but you we are supposed to find such features in Flock. Consider deviantArt, It’s a big community and flock could be just the perfect tool for such a community (you could use the mediabar, the blogging tool and the RSS reader… all for stuff you do in deviantArt).
Let’s consider eBay or Amazon. We need integration for such tools. We also need some sort of instant messaging feature… and I’m thinking about Meebo. Netvibes integrated Meebo in their custom start page, why can’t flock do the same with a more elegant (side)bar?
Let’s see if they can improve the Flock experience. I’m really enthusiast about this browser so far.
Links:
Flock
DownThemAll Beta Version
AdBlock Plus
FasterFox
2 Comments
Hey Niccolò,
Thanks for the writeup! Integration is the right word to use, that’s what we’re going for. :)
Regarding what you’d like to see in the future: you’re spot on, there are a lot of other interactions we could create. We are busy building an API that will allow developers to plug services into our existing features in a much easier way, so that we can concentrate on new features like online commerce or chat. None of this is set in stone, but allowing other people to plug services in will give us this freedom.
Expect some awesome developments in the next few months and a powerful 1.0 later this year.
Flock on!
Evan Hamilton
Flock Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com
Hi Evan,
Thank you for stopping by and taking time to comment on this post. If I had known you were going to leave a comment, I would have avoided the feedback form with feature requests on the flock site :D Sorry about that.
Anyway the API idea is great. We’ll see a modular flock then… and a powerful 1.0 later this year. Woah, sounds great. Keep up the good work!
Flock on!
Nick