Posted on Wednesday 19 October 2005 - Popularity: unranked
Beta versions of the Firefox based social web browser Flock are finally out in the wild and it has now become much clearer what Flock exactly is. The browser has currently following web services integrated: del.icio.us, Flickr and a few different blogging systems. Here’s a first impressions round up:
Flying with the Flock by Solution Watch:
Flock did a good job at sticking to the basic structure of a browser and basically looks like a beautified Firefox, but with extra features.
I absolutely loved knowing that I can be at any website and then open up the topbar to view the latest photos. I also mentioned the Blog Topbar. With this Topbar open and setup with your blog settings, you can easily select any text from a website and click and drag it into a box that they provide. When you drag it into the box, it will actually bring up the Blog Editor allowing you to create a post very easily with the text you selected in a blockquote and reference to the source, where you selected the text.
The favorites menu allows you to star a page along with adding tags to it, you can star multiple tabs at once (all tabs that are open), add the page to a collection that you have, and you can even see your most recent favorites or frequently visited bookmarks. If you do not like how it adds to del.icio.us, you can disable this in the options.
Shelf is actually a very helpful little tool. What you do is go to the menu for Flock and select Tools and then Shelf. A small window will now open that looks similar to the Download window from Firefox and inside it will have a background image saying, “Drop Stuff Here.” So, that is what you do. Go to a website, select some text, and then click and drag it down onto the Shelf window and drop it in the white area.
Overall, I love Flock. It has some excellent features and it definitely shows the social and blogging side to it. The interface is designed beautifully and it is a great browser. Sure, there are a few issues here and there, but it isn’t complete yet and only in Beta. I was very impressed with what I saw and am sure they have more coming.
Flock’s Refines Features, Expands Beta by TechCrunch:
Flock also has a built in RSS reader that is both dead simple to use and yet powerful enough for heavy users. A simple drop down box can be accessed for any page that allows you to grab the feed for the page you are currently on, and add it to an existing or newly created folder. Feeds can be tagged, and the viewer allows for expanded or collapsed feed viewing.
Flock First Impressions by jarkolicious:
Flock, the idea, is very interesting, to say the least. It is a completely new approach to the web browser which, ultimately, might be what leads to it being a niche product rather than a widely accepted one.
The way Flickr is integrated in to the interface is quite different than I had envisioned. I imagined that when visiting websites the Flickr images would change based on the content or some unique algorithm the Flock folks designed. The Flickr integration does not appear to operate that way; it simply loads images from preset pool or from a user that you specify.
I would much rather see something similar to what I envisioned with the Flickr integration. Perhaps in the same vein that Technorati worked Flickr in to its user interface.
Sounds really promising. If you’re already in love with the browser just by reading these impressions, you may be interested in this Flock wallpapers.
Fredi
