I am starting to feel a little guilty after recently stumbling on Flock, a new browser, and installing it. I feel like I'm having an affair on Firefox.
I am on line daily, so I get pretty attached to my browser; It's my window to the web. My first window, Internet Explorer was practical, and as far as I knew it was the only model, so I was content with it. Until I found Firefox. Firefox opened a whole new world.
Using Firefox provides a very different experience of the web than IE. The details like tabbed browsing, live bookmarks, extensions, etc. are what really impressed me. Things became easier and more enjoyable.
If you are still using IE, click the button in the sidebar and download Firefox. After using it for a while you will see how much better the web can be.
Flock is based on the Firefox engine and can do everything Firefox can, but does some of it better. It feels like an natural evolution of Firefox, just like Firefox feels like an evolved IE. Flock is a browser ready for Web 2.0 content.
A Rough and Rapid Explanation of Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is a concept to describe the World Wide Web's future. It is about changing a user's experience from something static to something dynamic. Blogs, wikis, RSS, and social software are all examples of Web 2.0. It is about allowing the user to decide on the content and interact with it.
It is also about providing services anywhere. On line office tools make it possible to access projects from any computer with Internet access; content can be fed with RSS to mobile phones.
This is only a rough idea of what Web 2.0 means. For a better explanation see What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software or Wikipedia's Web 2.0 entry.
Flock: A Browser Designed for Me
Much of what I do on the Internet involves using Web 2.0 services. My daily Internet ritual consists of loading my Google Homepage, reading my news feeds, checking my blog feeds, and maybe blogging about something. I figure I am the type of user Flock has been designed for.
The thing that I am love the most about Flock is that it makes my daily ritual easier: The feed reader is the best I have used, the blog editor is simple and practical, the snippets are faster than Google notebook, and the photo bucket integration makes adding photos to blog posts painless.
Feed Reading
For Firefox I have been using Sage to read my feeds. I like having a reader right in my browser with the ability to detect and add feeds to my list straight from the website. What I didn't like however, was how slowly it checked and displayed feeds.
The integrated reader for Flock solves that problem by loading in seconds. I had originally figured the problem had to do with the fact I connect by dial-up, but Flock seems so fast I don't think that was the problem.
Along with being so much faster, the method of organizing and displaying the feeds is brilliant. Feeds are organized into collections which are essentially folders. When the My News icon is clicked a new tab is opened and a front page is displayed with all the collections as headers under which are displayed the most recent feed items of each collection. It reminds me of my personalized Google News page, a page I am visiting less since I can just feed it into the browser instead.
Additionally, the feeds are viewable off line once loaded, an advantage when you have dial-up and don't want to tie up the phone line.
Adding new feeds is simple. Whenever a feed is detected an icon appears on the right side of the address bar. Click the icon, preview the feed, then click or drag the subscribe button to a collection and your done. You can also add the feeds manually as well.
Blogging
For Firefox I have been using Performancing to post to my blog. I like having an editor right in my browser, and Performancing is a damn good one. Only gripe about it was no spell checker.
The integrated blog editor for flock not only solves that problem, but blows Performancing out of the water. It loads in a separate window instead of taking up space at the bottom of the screen. Posts can be saved on your computer--for someone with little time daily to blog this is essential. Technocrati tags are automatically added when a post is published.
The most exciting feature is the web snippets bar built into the editor.
Web SnippetsWhen Google launched its notebook I was ecstatic. I was almost to the point of telling strangers on the street about it. Being able to clip and save parts of the web from the browser is extremely useful when researching. Using dial-up though means it runs very slowly, so slow I rarely bother using it.
The web snippets are the same idea but being integrated in the browser means no waiting. Highlight text or an image and either right click and send it to the snippets or drag it down to the snippets bar. Like I mentioned earlier the web snippet bar is also available in the blog editor for added convenience.
Google Notebook still had its uses. Allowing others to view notebooks on line makes it perfect for collaborating on projects with others. The two complement each other perfectly.
Photo bucket IntegrationThe concept of photo sharing is something I find interesting, but something I don't find interest in using. I do use Photobucket to host images for my blog though.
Flock supports both Flickr and Photobucket. The photo bar at the top allows you to view your photo library and upload it from the browser. Having to log into Photo bucket every time I wanted to post an image or change my blog's layout becomes a pain. Now it's a matter of dragging the image to the bar.
In ConclusionAfter writing this I feel a little less guilty about leaving Firefox alone on my desktop. Flock feels like it was designed with my needs in mind. It can do everything Firefox can and so much more. It is Firefox evolved.
technorati tags:Flock, Browser, Web2.0, Review, Canada, Firefox
Blogged with Flock
