I have been using FireFox exclusively for 4+years. I love everything about FireFox, the add-on’s, the themes and definitely the versatility. A year ago, I started playing around with the new Mozilla based social browser called Flock. Several versions later, I think I’m ready to make the switch to full time use of Flock for all social media related web browsing. Here is why I think you should to.
1) Built in Media Sharing
Flock has built in support for Photobucket, Flickr, Facebook, Piczo, Picasa, YouTube and more.
That makes it really, really easy to share everything from pictures to videos to links to text. Just Drag and Drop from the Media Bar or right-click to send to email or to a blog.
You can even carry photos, videos and text, wherever you go online, right on the Media Bar or on the Web Clipboard. This feature alone saves me so much time, allowing me to drag and drop media at will, making working online much easier. Another very cool feature is “Media Streams”, if you find someone who has media you like online – Just click on the the small star next to “Media Streams” to subscribe. You will then be notified every time they upload new media across various social sites like Flickr, Facebook, Youtube and others. You can also search photos and videos on Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, Truveo or YouTube right from within Flock UI. Just click the arrow to scroll across the various search results across the Media Bar, without it affecting your tabs.
2) Built in Social Networking
Flock has built in support for LiveJournal, MySpace, FaceBook, Blogger, Delicious, Twitter and more. Once you configure ALL your social Network accounts, Flock automatically populates your People Bar with all your friends. This makes it a cinch to receive and share media with friends across various social networks. You can also drag and drop photos, videos and text from the web or the Media Bar to share with your friends in the sidebar. Flock will also notify you when any of your friends upload new media with an orange Media icon next to their profile on the People Sidebar. All you have to do is click on the logo, and the new media will automatically be loaded into the Media Bar or Web Clipboard.
3) Built In Blogging Support
Flock has a One Click built in blog post editor. You can drag and drop pictures, videos and text right onto it, and start editing your post within Flock. This is a feature I LOVE! The blog editor allows you to post to multiple blogs across multiple platforms, including self hosted blogs.The Flock blog editor has all the standard features of other popular free blog editors. Below are some of the blogging platforms supported by Flock.
Blogger
Blogsome
LiveJournal
Typepad
Wordpress
Xanga
Self Hosted Blogs
ATOM
MetaWeblog
Moveable Type
4) Built in RSS reader
Flock has a handy built in RSS reader right on the sidebar of the UI. It also has automatic RSS feed detection and a one click subscription button. If the site has a feed, Flock will tell you by highlighting the RSS button. The built in RSS reader works great to organize and share your feeds, just email to friend or blog it with just one click. As of today, I have not imported the mother-load of feeds to my Flock browser. I will do a follow up post, and let everyone know how that works out.
5) Enhanced Search and Bookmarking Functions
Flock has built-in one click search and bookmarking enhancements, which makes it simple to add, edit and manage favorites and bookmarks. Just click on the orange star on the UI to bring up the Favorites and Bookmarks Side Bar and categorize the current site.Click on the star twice to edit Favorites and Bookmarks It also has a great folders feature for categorization. Tags can also be used to find or organize sites with similar characteristics or in similar groupings. Another VERY helpful feature is the Live search results from various sources.
Live results are generated as you type from: Amazon, Craigslist, eBay , Favorites, Technorati, Wiki, Wink People, Yahoo, Ask, Google.
Since Flock is based on Mozilla/FireFox, it is compatible with most of the important add-ons and plugins. So far I have installed and tested the following Add-ons: Stumbleupon, Mixx Bookmarklet, GBookmarks and several others. For a full list visit this link:
To give Flock a try download here:
Disclaimer: Yes, I like Flick this much. I have no incentive or motive, other than wanting to share it with others.
I like flock too, for the very same reasons. Plus its built on the mozilla core so its just like firefox… They’re coming out with an eco-edition on earth day, using it donates to charity.
http://www.blarguments.com/green-mozilla-browser-launches-on-earth-day
Thanks for the heads up. I have also been “playing” with Flock for the last couple of months but have been hesitant to leave my firefox. I’ll be interested to hear how the feed migration goes.
If I can get all the add-ons over to firefox, I guess then it is pretty much a no brainer from that point.
thx
Hmm, It sounds like you are making a tempting argument… However, I saw that your screenshots were all in a Mac… Anything a PC user should be aware of in the difference of use?
Well, thank you, Manny. I found this post just in time. I made the switch — or rather, added it to both my Firefox and IE web excursions — and Flock has saved gobs and gobs of time, especially in Facebook where the viewing friends’ photos was kind of a slow loading process. Now, zip, all photos right across the media bar! But too, the email apps and having the subscription feed from YouTube load right into the media bar is an extremely efficient way to review and scan multi-media.
Now I can use Firefox and its could add-ons for what it does best. Found Flock through this post and am passing this link on.