Flock is a relatively new browser that is geared toward social networking. As sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Digg, Twitter, Picasa, and a whole list of others have become prominent ways we interact with our friends, the people over at Flock decided to create a a browser that provided integration with various social networking sites.
Flock is based on the popular Firefox browser, so there is a similarity. Where it diverges is its integration and customization for brining together your online world. Rather than having to visit multiple social networking sites you can keep tabs on things all in one browser window. Flock even notifies you via color icons in the sidebar when something changes such as a friend’s status, a new blog post, or a new media file uploaded by a friend.
In the above screenshot, you can see many different features. First is the media bar that you can collapse or expand (there is an icon at the top of the sidebar). This lets you browse pictures when you vist sites such as Flick, Photobucket, etc. Another interesting feature of this bar is viewing friends photos. For example, when you visit someone’s Facebook page who has photos uploaded, a picture icon near the address bar turns orange to let you know media is available. Click that icon and the person’s pictures load in the media bar. You can see in the picture above how putting your mouse over an image makes it larger and shows you the author and the caption. Clicking the picture takes you to that picture in their album.
Of course, being a product of Firefox and a current browser, there is the standard multiple tab view option for opening more than one page in a browser. I FINALLY figured out the hot keys for switching tabs the other day and I was so happy (CTRL + Tab). Notice the three icons next to the address bar? The first lights up when a media stream is available as previously discussed. The middle one lets you know when a feed is available and allows you to subscribe and add that feed to your side bar so you will instantly know when the site is updated…cool, I know. The final icon lets you know when an installable search engine is available on the page (I don’t use this much).
There are two other icons of note on the address bar that differ from other browsers. Clicking the star automatically adds the page to your favorites. Blue means you can add it, orange means it is already a favorite. The little green icon is unique to my version of the browser (I think) because it is another program that I have on my computer that I am currently testing called Evernote. I can select any text on the page and click that icon to send it into Evernote, or I can send an entire page at once without selecting anything and clicking the icon. After I have tried this program, I may review it if I think it is worth using.
Sidebars
Where Flock really shines is the sidebar. This is where the social networking sites are integrated. Setting this up is so easy. There is a key icon at the top of the sidebar that takes you to the accounts section. Click the link for one of the sites and enter your account info. That site is now configured in the sidebar. So if you enter your Facebook account info, now you can see all of your friends on Facebook, their statuses, and even interact with them. When someone on one of the networks makes a change, the People icon at the top changes to orange to notify you of the update. Currently, Flock can integrate with 19 different social networking service. I am using 5 of them and I can check them all in one place. So convenient.
Then there is the feed sidebar. I have been using Google Reader to keep up with my regular sites I read, but this works even better. When the feed icon turns orange, I know there is an update to one of the sites I read regularly. I can open that bar, click on the site, and go straight to the update. Best of all, since this is in a sidebar, I can see when things are updated while I am doing my regular surfing. I don’t have to go to Google Reader and refresh it to check for updates.
Suppose you are surfing along and you come across something you want to read, but not right now. This happens to me all the time. I usually add the page to my favorites where I will forget about it forever. Now you can select it and drag it into the web clipboard in the side bar. The text and images will be saved for later. Once added, there are links to view the selection, email it, blog it, or delete it. Say you see a funny picture and want to add it to your blog. It is very simple to do. Drag the picture to the clipboard, then hit the blog it link to create a new post on your blog / website. This brings us to the final feature for this article.
Blogging
Other browsers / software have promised easy posting directly to your blog. Since I self host, this NEVER works. Until now. There are links to services such as WordPress, Blogger, Xanga, and TypePad to name a few. Simply enter your account info and you are ready to go. Mine took a few more steps to setup, but less than 3 minutes total. And it worked the FIRST time! I click the create post icon, and up comes the window you see below:
There are three tabs at the bottom. The first is a typical WYSWIG editor. The second is a source in case you write your posts, as I do, with HTML code. The third is a preview tab which lets you see what the post will look like. There is also a box at the bottom to add your tags. Once you post is completed, you can publish it with the upload icon. It will then prompt to select which of your blogs you wish to post to, allow you to select the categories for the post, and even the option to overwrite an existing post with the new one.
There are still more features that I didn’t get to here. If you would like to read about them in a much more succinct manner than I am capable of you may do so over at the Wired blog. They also give opinions on some of the features that need improvement if you are looking for the downside of the browser.
I have tried many new browsers over the years and never really stuck with one over Internet Explorer. This may be different. We’ll see how the next week or two goes. So far so good. I may finally be able to ditch IE!
You know how sometimes you know your car needs service? You may even know what it needs, such as a new alternator. The problem is you have no idea how much it’s going to cost. If you’re like me, you hesitate to take it in because then you feel pressured and obligated to get the work done.
Google is celebrating it’s 
The next time you are arguing with a friend about something and you want verification you are correct, ask an expert. 
