Choosing the Web browser of the future

It's been a busy time of celebration for Web browsers. Firefox marked its 100 millionth download recently with much fanfare, and even Opera got into the act with a birthday of its own.

But the sleeper may be the next-generation Flock browser, which integrates many of the so-called social technologies driving Web development today, such as RSS feeds, blogs, tagging, community bookmarks and photo sharing. Although bloggers have been less than enthused about Flock so far, that could change quickly as social technologies continue to gain popularity.

And as history has shown, things can change drastically where the browser is concerned. Case in point: Firefox has made gains in market share against Microsoft's Internet Explorer, something that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. So even if Flock isn't the answer, perhaps something else designed for new Web technologies will be.

Blog community response:

"The current state of Flock is intended for those on the bleeding edge. It is a developer preview (not yet in beta), but it is powerful and makes the web increasingly participatory. If you have the inclination to see what the future of browsing looks like, take a peek."
--outlet

"The question is whether the browser producers get together and at least agree on some basics for the next generation of browsers. At the moment, the future is not promising."
--Hacking Log 4.0

"I'm waiting for the day when the Internet will get off the browser. Why can't all of this be customized into the desktop, so that we don't need a separate window to bring up information? Why can't it all be in the operating system?"
--Wannabe Gandhi