My good friends over at Flock HQ have updated the developer preview of their Firefox-based browser to version 0.5.11. I’ve talked about Flock several times in the past, including my comprehensive review. For those of you that have never heard of Flock, it’s a browser aimed at Web 2.0 gurus and bloggers. The release notes show impressive improvements to the features line-up. The code base seems to have been sync’d with Firefox 1.5 via the inclusion of the auto-update feature. However, the big name feature for me is importing bookmarks from Firefox, which you weren’t able to do in previous versions. If you haven’t used Flock before, now might be the time to download it, especially with things like the improved Flickr integration and upgraded blog engine.
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I’m curious Paul, is Flock part of your regular browser usage or is it one of those things you use every once in a while?
While I like Flock, I can’t seem to use it for extended periods of time. I guess I’m just too used to traditional web browsers.
It’s my weekend browser. =D Like a Ferrari would be your weekend car, Flock’s my weekend browser where as Safari is my daily driver.
I think people have been a bit harsh. I like Flock. It’s got plenty of potential and my previous version didn’t crash once. The new one probably will though, with my luck.
Most people don’t know how to use all of the advanced features in flock. Heck I don’t even get all of it!
Hey Paul, thanks for the mention. Yeah, we’re still really figuring a lot of things out and discovering the parts of the browser that are rough and need much work. But we’re making rapid strides and have assembled a great team to keep pushing things forward.
The Flickr topbar and uploader in particular have come a long way, and that you can now have privacy and collection-syncing in your favorites with the Shadows service is pretty big.
The blogging and feed reading workflows still have much need for improvements and we’re actively seek feedback and beginning a heavy round of user testing to tease those flows out.
I do think we’re making some progress, and am eager to see 0.6 and 0.7 shape up.
SWEET! I love the Web2.0-ness of Flock but hated the fact that it didn’t import any bookmarks from Firefox. I’m going to get it right now. Thanks!
i think it might be time for me to give flock the once over yet again. i gave the browser a spin and used it as my main browser for about two months before deciding not to update and run until a significant release was made available. this recent update is enough to get me back in the routine. let’s hope that the bugs that i saw have been cleaned up. one particular feature will be the integrated blogging. i vaguely recall code being a bit of a mess for updating uneasysilence, as well as my other projects. i think my new home 5thirtyone will be completely powered by flock ;)
Thanks for the props Paul.
Your review of the last release was one of the most insightful! I look forward to some more insights into what we did well and not so well in this release.
Now, I am going to have to update that Flickr set, which is already so large that Flickr does not handle it well.
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All the best to you,
Lloyd D Budd
Flock QA (Qommunity and quality Assurance)
Flock / http://flock.com
blog / http://foolswisdom.com/~lloyd
I’m in the new flock right now… and it is a world of change from what I remember. I think I will use it for this week and see how goes. Extensions need more support.. they linked to the web developer plugin, but the current version is 1.0 and they had 0.9.3 I believe. Anywho, it will beat the monotony of Safari crashing on me everyday – but that’s because my Mac Mini is overclocked into oblivion. =D
Flock is pretty cool, I downloaded it last night, it seems to be the ultimate browser for bloggers and the flickr options are great. Thanks for the post Paul.
Still no favorites toolbar. Until they get such a basic function, it’s not useable. I want to be able to point at a bookmark and click to go to the site. If I have to hit the favorites button, scroll down the list, right-click, and hit open in new tab to view a site, it’s not worth it to use the browser.
the blog editor is nice, though.
Yeah, I think they moved over to something based off of the awesome Performancing plugin.
No Paul, Flock’s Blog editor is not based off of Performancing.
My bad, I had just assumed that when I glanced over this.
I do not understand Jesse. There are favorite toolbars for each of your collections.
Flock Wiki: Choosing a collection for your topbar
Further, entering a search term in the search box (and not pressing Enter) will search your favorites and history.
Flock Wiki: Searching
No bad Paul ;-) I would like to see the Performancing and Flock collaberating.
Looks nice, trying it now.
doesn’t work with the newest web dev toolbar, which has the FABULOUS ‘Display Element Information’ feature (ctrl/apple-shift-F). sweet little tool when you’re trying to figure out just exactly which element to tweak in your css. i’ll wait until a later release.
all i can say about flock is that – it indeed is better for the web 2.0 and blogging gurus. I have all the latest ones – ie 7.0 beta2 preview, firefox 1.5 and Flock and i use the last one :D for obvious reasons – It manages my work better and with extensions of Firefox converted for flcok – its really awesome to work with !!
Flock is a waste of time. I wish its developers would spend their precious time on something useful, like contributing to Firefox itself.
And put us out of a job?? C’mon man, nothing substantive’s been done with browsers in 10 years. Why doesn’t it make sense that Mozilla continue making an awesome foundational browser while others like Flock and Camino go off and try to build tools that appeal to smaller markets? It’s not like it hurts anyone and hey — you’ll notice that Firefox will be getting a lot of the features that we’ve pioneered in Flock (namely, the star button and the Places feature).
Competition from within the open source community is a good thing ™. It means that both browsers will be improving — trying to best one another and create the best features for different audiences. If you don’t care for Flock’s approach to the web — no problem, you can always go back to Firefox. We’re all part of the same ecosystem, and both of our successes actually benefit you, no matter which browser you use. Yah?
And once again …
I agree: competition is much needed. I like the way Flock is trying to break out of the mold. There are many good ideas there and they are integrated well. I don’t know how much of it will be “borrowed” by others, but I would think that in the long run, Flock will come out on top in that area simply because the new ways of getting things done were there right from the start as a part of the basic concept, and were not tagged on later as an afterthought.
Keep it up, guys (and gals?).
At the 60-hour mark it really is starting to win me over. And it has steered me into Web 2.0 online places I’d not otherwise have ventured into. That Flock creates its own folder for Profiles is good since it proved most efficient for me to create a whole new identity structure with corresponding accounts. Roboform is the extension most sorely needed and still incompatible, but I really think that that password functionality ought to be built in.
I have 34 extensions working, but modding and testing weren’t trivial tasks. Show Bookmarks Menu is one extension I still fall back to but I suppose I’m using shadows.com more than half the time. Lamentably, shadows.com hasn’t gained a critical mass of users.
A bug-fix update released today, Feb 24.
Flock is converting me to Web 2.0, but there has been a steep learning curve. I’ve had to set up umpteen new accounts since a new identity and Profile had to replace what I’d used in my 20th Century Firefox existence. They’ve got to get something like Roboform integrated — that extension doesn’t work :( It could help if shadows.com achieved critical mass, but I appreciate that they’ve not blocked the “Show Bookmarks Menu” extension.
Modding extensions to work is a PITA, though I got 34 functioning in my first three days. But, more of this stuff should be built in, esp. tabbery and sidebar stuff.
I completely agree with Volkher.
And i’d like to note that this blog is nice and trendy looking.
-[Trendy Box]-