Flock 2.5 launches with support for Twitter, more services

Statistically, Flock is probably not for you. This Web browser, the 2.5 version of which is coming out today for Windows and Mac, is "designed to be the essential browser for the most active 25 percent of users," Flock CEO Shawn Hardin tells me.

You don't generally see browser makers designing their products to not be used by the majority of Web surfers, but this is typical Flock: it's a browser designed for not just Web surfers, but Web crackheads. So far, 7.5 million people have downloaded the browser, and about 1.1 million actively use it.

Flock's differentiator is the way it integrates other services into the main browser frame. While you can layer in some similar features with Firefox plug-in, in Flock, almost everything you'd want to do on the social Web is already built in. And, as Hardin reminds me, all the social features are developed alongside the browser itself, so integration and performance should be more consistent.

The new version adds support for Twitter and provides persistent access to Facebook Chat from any Web page. It even has a Twitter search widget on its home page. It has hooks into other services as well--all told, more than 20, including more social networks (Bebo, MySpace, etc.), media sharing services like Picasa and YouTube, blogging platforms, bookmark organizers, and so on. Some services are better integrated than others. The new Twitter sidebar is very slick, for example, but although the "accounts and services" sidebar has a Gmail option, all it does is log your browser into the e-mail system and load up the Web page.

Flock's social chops, from left to right: The social bar that displays all your social feeds together; the home page with Twitter Search; and the pop-up Facebook Chat menu.

(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)

Also, the browser doesn't offer access to other chat apps besides Facebook. Hardin says that will come soon.

On the other hand the browser's capability to display all your social network feeds in one interleaved list together is very handy. You can also have the browser "Flockcast" to Facebook duplicates of the posts you make to Twitter.

Flock runs social network content down the left side of its application workspace, and runs media content (like Facebook galleries) in a slide viewer across the top. I find this display a bit overwhelming, although all the viewer panes can be hidden. When they're all on, Flock can feel like a social network app first, and browser second. But I like how easy it is to post Web URLs to people in your social network: you just drag a link from your browser over the person's name.

At least Flock uses a good rendering engine. While not yet running at Chrome speed nor using the Webkit engine, Flock uses the latest Mozilla engine, Gecko, the same as in Firefox. Hardin says Webkit is "really interesting, but perhaps not yet enough of an ecosystem." He also says, "We are looking at it and will consider any and all possibilities," for future versions of Flock.

Flock's revenue model is working, for the most part. The company gets a cut of search ad revenues for queries kicked off from the search box built into the browser.

The recession has had an impact: search revenues have slowed. But Hardin is eyeing a new revenue stream: bounties for upgrades from free services (like Yahoo Mail) to their paid upgrades (like Yahoo Mail Plus).

Hardin is right to recognize that Flock isn't for everyone. It's a rich and capable product, but it's based on a different philosophy from other browsers. And it's at the other extreme of the spectrum from Google's Chrome, which eschews site- and service-specific features for a stripped-down interface and a fanatical focus on speed. If you like having specialized, best-of-breed apps for accessing your social networks and for browsing, Flock might not be for you. But if you want to use the smallest number of apps the do the most stuff, Flock--and precious little else--belongs on your desktop.

[flickrz]

Flock = bloatware for the rest of the world.

[fwpeteo]

flickr = overrated to the rest of the world

[flickrz]

Even though my id suggest otherwise, I am hardly a fan of flickr.

[sharmajunior]

Flock actually is sort of like an extension to firefox. I absolutely love it. You can login to various sites while browsing through other sites....plus most of the plugins work on it by default. Overall a good product for multitasking.

[menon.nrk]

If you like multi media and social browsing, keep Flock browser on your desktop. Smart one.

[grantkuo]

it's about the damn time

[cheboncruz]

flock w/ gecko = addons/extensions
flock w/ gecko = speed but no addons/extensions?

[Elena_Gr]

Flock is the best browser for me. As I work with social media every day, Flock simplifies my work a lot. Thanks the developers, I'll surely try the latest version!

[sjk1000]

Flock is truly the best browser I've ever used. I now regularly use blogs, feeds and delicious when I never have before and the picture upload for facebook comes in handy. They're all simply accessible and waiting to be used there on the desktop. All firefox addons eg firebug, greasemonkey, tree style tab, zotero, sxipper work without a hitch too. If I had to raise an issue I'd say the menu bar on the top left is a bit cramped and I'd like the option to remove a icons to make more space up top. Unless it all goes squiffy for flock in the future where I can't use my addons (ie heading chrome-wards perhaps) I won't go back to firefox, or use the seemingly neglected Chrome. ('course IE doesn't even appear in the running but respect to Opera)

[3rdalbum]

Flock is a brilliant piece of work. It really gives you integration between popular web services and your web browser; it's like what Mozilla might have been if it had continued along the course it was taking, rather than simplifying it all with Firefox. Even if this write-up of the new version doesn't tickle your fancy, I highly suggest trying Flock as it has some excellent features (photo uploading to Flickr and social networking sites, integrated blog post writer, and RSS feeds on your "My World" page.

[I-am-Nerd]

http://www.flock.com/

Notice it says "Powered by Mozilla"

[WeCanDoBIZ]

As more and more site sstart support standards like OpenID, so the web as a whole will become more social and less of the important stuff will happen on the social networks themselves; they'll just act as an aggregator/portal to feed activity to the other socially aware web destinations. How is Flock going to keep up with a whole web with social elements? So far it looks like they need to "code" support for social media sites, rather than the user add preferences or, better still, it have some intelligence to work out where the user uses their identity across the web.

Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz

[shakethebabyass]

Flock is Awesome to say the least. I like the firefox platform but have always hated the firefox browser itself.

I have used flock for a long time. Totally awesome and I highly recommend.

[menon.nrk]

The new updated one is better

[paulk29]

umm im new here but can someone explain to me why none of the pages work? like my other browsers like Chrome and firefox work but flock does not?

[avrajan82]

Flock is the best browser ever i have seen... Its a wonderful browser... its support maximum websites than other browsers and also its faster than others... overall flock is the good internet web browser....

[dinnerandamurder]

I personally have fallen in love with Flock. I really liked the speed of Safari, but it had very few add ons. Firefox has tons of addons, but I always had performance issues with it. The last update just about killed it for me. I updated to Flock and get the best of both worlds. Speed, performance and lots of cool add ons. It has also helped tremendously for handling all my social media.