Flock

<< back to Responsibilities page == = = = = //Web browser software// [|Flock] | [|Flock User Guide] | [|Download] | [|Extensions] | Flock is a free web browser based heavily on Mozilla Firefox that bills itself as a social web browser that makes it "easy for you to connect with your friends and express yourself online." The Flock browser makes it easy to connect with many Web 2.0 services.It has a high degree of "discoverability" in the fact that it easily identifies RSS feeds and other types of online services automatically. This simplifies and/or automates many of the steps involved when using these services. Although, there are not as many add-ons available for Flock as there are for Firefox, some Firefox extensions will work with Flock. However, figuring out which ones do and don't work seems to be a trial and error process.

[|View Flock features in action.]

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=Features:=

My World
My World is basically a start page similar to (Netvibes, Page Flakes, iGoogle, etc.) that allows you to gather your favorite sites, feeds and media together on one page. This is good for quick access to your [|Favorite] web sites, feeds, media, the default search engine, photo uploader and blog editor.

Favorites
This is Flocks take on bookmarks. One very nice thing they incorporate is the ability to tag your bookmarks with key words. This is similar to what you can do on Del.icio.us and other bookmarking services. This is a nice way to organize/categorize your favorites so that they are easy to find when you need them.

Clip Board
The Clip Board is a drag and drop component of Flock that allows you to easily drag and drop images, text, links from sites for later usage. A built-in, beefed up Notepad of sorts. This is very similar to what the Google Notebook extension for Firefox does except is it not stored on a server. You can click the little notebook icon at any time to open up web snippets or if you drag some thing over the bottom part of the web browser, it will open automatically for you to drop it in.

RSS Reader
The acronym **RSS** is used interchangeably with news feed. **RSS** is a technology that allows you to subscribe to websites to get regular updates.

Media Bar
Flock's media bar lets you view videos and photos as well as notify you when your friends upload new ones.

Blogging
According to Flock, their built-in blogging tool allows you to "blog anything from anywhere".

Integration
Some of the services integrated into Flock include:

Audio/Video:

 * YouTube
 * flickr
 * photobucket

Blogging

 * Blogger
 * WordPress
 * TypePad
 * Live Journal
 * Blogsome
 * Xanga

Online/Shared Bookmarks

 * del.icio.us
 * magnolia

Continued reading:
 * [|Flock, the new browser on the block] (Business Week 2005)
 * [|Flock: social browser gets significant update]
 * [|Decremental blog about Flock]
 * [|A Wiki dedicated to Flock]
 * [|A great site introducing RSS Feeds]

=Strengths:=
 * Integration with some social web services.
 * Flickr photo uploader
 * Indicators that let you know when new media streams, feeds and search engines are available on the page you are visiting.

=Weakness:=
 * Limited number of services integrated.
 * Not as many add-ons available as Firefox.Some but not all Firefox add-ons supported.

=Download:= ==