Flock is launching version 1.0 of its social browser next month. The biggest change is a new RSS reader and start page that essentially builds in its own NetVibes and Google Reader. Also new is a sidebar that hangs out on the right side of the browser and has tabs for Flickr, Facebook, and YouTube. If you've read up on our coverage of Mozilla's Coop project, Flock has basically beaten them to the punch, with a sidebar of your friends that lets you both keep track of what they're up to, as well as being able to drag bits of content onto their icons to share.
The service isn't just about sharing on those three sites though. If you find something you like on a site that hasn't been integrated, you can drag over any link to one of your contacts to share it with them, or post it on your blog or social networking profile. Flock has also built in some advanced contextual menus to let you pick exactly where you want to share the content. The idea is to help you share things in services you're already using. Flock is just the mechanism.
Flock has also added a new "media minibar" which pulls together pictures and video clips from your friends and contacts on Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, Piczo, Photobucket, and Truveo. It's basically an extension of the RSS reader, and can also let you pull in media from whatever page you're on to share with others. Like everything else in version 1.0, any media on the minibar can be dragged onto your buddy list.
I think the biggest draw to version 1.0 of Flock will be its new sharing features, and tight integration with YouTube, Facebook, and Flickr. The integrated RSS reader also makes it part of an attractive package. Will most people be willing to ditch their current RSS readers and browser for Flock's solution? My guess is no, but it doesn't mean Flock can't vie for a spot beside your No. 1 browser, and go for people my age (18-24), who use these services extensively. The service made its 1.0 announcement at this morning's TechCrunch 40 conference. If you'd like to sign up for the private beta, Flock has a sign-up form here.
Yesterday Netscape released a public beta of their new Navigator browser, and brought back the "Navigator" moniker. Firefox users will feel right at home, as the browser has been built off the same architecture and even works with Firefox extensions. Netscape has introduced several neat new features with version 9 that I think make it a fairly compelling browser choice.
The first thing users are likely to notice is the integration with some of Netscape's services. Users of Netscape.com, Netscape's redesigned start page that features user-submitted, and ranked stories by its users (similar to other social democracy sites like Digg and Reddit) get full integration with news stories and their site mail. When reading any story, anywhere, the browser will "phone home" to see if the link has been submitted to Netscape.com. If it has, users will get a graphical menu in the address bar that lets them vote on the story, or jump straight to the comments. If it hasn't, there's a "share" button that will take them straight to the submission page.
If you're visiting a page that's been submitted to Netscape.com, you can vote or discuss it. If it hasn't, you can submit it to the service.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Another feature, and one users aren't likely to notice until they make a typing mistake, is URL correction. This will automatically fix spelling or punctuation mistakes like typing "con" for "com," or forgetting a "." somewhere. This is a little detail that most people aren't likely to notice until it fixes their mistake automatically.
One new feature that's sure to quietly become valuable to power users is the option to resize forms. Say you're writing a long e-mail or filling out a blog entry. When it gets to the point where you need to scroll to look over your work, you can just grab the bottom edge of the form and drag it down to make it larger. This can be incredibly helpful in forms where you simply aren't given enough room to see what you've written.
Netscape has included a handful of other new features, like a mini browser within your browser (for viewing sites side by side), a sidebar for Netscape's News Tracker service, and a special drag-and-drop sidebar for saving and accessing bookmarked links. Navigator has also been given a face-lift from version 8, with smaller and cleaner buttons.
Ultimately, Netscape Navigator 9 is just a specialized version of Firefox, akin to other niche efforts such as Flock. I can't recommend making the switch from Firefox to Netscape Navigator 9, unless you're a fervent user of Netscape's services. That being said, those users are going to enjoy this browser quite a bit, as it's been tailor-made to enhance their browsing experience.
The not-yet-working "StumbleThru" feature.
(Credit: StumbleUpon)This is weird. Last night it occurred to me that Webware should have a StumbleUpon-like feature: In other words, that there should be a button on the site that links to a random Webware review--because if you don't come to the site frequently, a write-up on a cool site we saw a month ago might be valuable to you, even if it isn't, strictly speaking, new. I also began to wonder if it wouldn't make sense for many other sites, especially blogs, to add a random-link feature to their front pages.
Then this morning I read (on Mashable) that StumbleUpon is launching a feature called "StumbleThru" that does just that. But just for a few sites.
As I write this, StumbleThru is not yet live or linked to from the StumbleUpon main site, but the StumbleThru index page is live. It shows you that you'll be able to perform site-constrained "Stumbles" on 13 services, including user-generated content sites YouTube and Flickr. The feature isn't turned on yet: right now, clicking on the sites generates an error.
I presume that the 13 sites in this feature were added based on their popularity to StumbleUpon users, but it leaves me wondering if StumbleUpon will release instructions or an API so people who run other sites will be able to put the function on their own sites. Presumably, if made available, the tool could feed popularity results back to the StumbleUpon service, and get destinations tailored to individual users.
Obviously, I think StumbleThru is a great idea. I've been waiting for this feature for 15 whole hours--enough time to work up a nice appetite for it. And now that it's almost here, I already want more of it.
Related news: it's rumored that eBay is about to acquire StumbleUpon.
Me.dium browser sidebar.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Wait, we've heard this before, haven't we? MyBlogLog (recently acquired by Yahoo) shows you who is viewing a Web page when you visit it. It's a really interesting app, but can be quite creepy.
A similar idea: Me.dium, which is launching its new "semi-public beta" at Demo 07 (which means it's an open beta, but new signups could be shut down at any time). Like MyBlogLog, Me.dium shows you who else is on the site you're on. It also shows you where your friends are hanging out online. And it shows you where people go to from the site you are on at any moment. You can chat with people who are on the site you're on, too.
Me.dium is a browser plug-in, so it works on any site.
Me.dium has privacy controls: it's easy to make yourself invisible to other users, and by default it doesn't show your presence on banking sites or on secure connections.
The service has real potential to make browsing--right now a private experience--a social experience. Unfortunately, both how to take advantage of the concept of Me.dium. and the features on the service itself are non-obvious to the casual user. It's harder to get up to speed on the service than it should be. But Me.dium is doing something very interesting and powerful, and it's worth puzzling through the service to understand its potential.
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