Design philosophies could hardly be further apart. Google’s ironically named Chrome browser, which launched last month, advanced the notion that browsers ought to be neither seen nor heard. Like operating systems, they should sit obediently in the background and make sure that the applications on top of them run quickly, reliably and safely.
Flock has always taken the opposite approach, insisting that the browser should provide a lot of upfront functionality on its own, not fade out of sight. Tonight’s release of Flock 2.0 - which brings the Mozilla-based browser up-to-speed with Firefox 3 technology and adds new support for MySpace and media RSS - reasserts this notion by giving the browser an even higher level of visibility than before.
Flock 2.0 is the first browser to take advantage of media RSS, a standard developed by Yahoo that syndicates rich content like photos and videos much like regular RSS syndicates blog posts. Now Flock users can add media RSS feeds to their My World start pages from any website that provides them, such as 12seconds.tv and Qik. VP of Marketing and Business Development Dan Burkhart describes media RSS as the quickest way for small to medium sized startups to integrate with Flock.
MySpace has also been finally integrated into Flock, allowing users to see their MySpace contacts in a sidebar where they can easily message them and share the content they find while surfing the web. Perhaps most usefully, Flock users can now comment on friends’ profiles using videos and photos without needing to know any HTML code. The developers at Flock have been working closely with MySpace to get all of this set up, and they’ve leveraged the Data Availability platform to do so.
Lastly, and most importantly, Flock’s code base has been upgraded to match that of Firefox 3. While most of the improvements are under the hood and include things such as better memory management, you’ll notice certain distinguishing Firefox 3 features such as the Awesome Bar. Burkhart says that the upgrade to Firefox 3 code was non-trivial and took about 3 months of focused attention.
What’s not in this release? Instant messaging is notably absent, although Burkhart says it’s definitely in the works and will support the most commonly used IM protocols. No word yet on when it will launch but it sounds like Flock’s most important feature at this time, especially now that MySpace support has been released.
Flock has been downloaded over six million times since the company’s founding 3 years ago and the first version’s launch last Fall. The browser is marketed primarily toward those in the 18-34 year old demographic that use social websites heavily.
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Flock started to run backwards a few years ago. I don’t know a soul who uses it.
I have tried both on Windows and Mac, but I cannot replace my Safari / FF. I don’t know anybody also that uses that either.
-Marcio Castilho
http://www.uquery.com
Flock was featured on the 30 day challenge and has plenty of usefulness. Flock is useful for blogging, web 2.0 applications, RSS feed reading, checking email and searching for youtube vids all at the same time while reading an article and writing a blog post about it. Oh, and when you’re done writing the post, you can post it without ever going to the pages your blog is hosted on. It hasn’t gone backwards, it’s continued to get better.
Chrome is lame. Buttons on bookmark toolbar are too big. Firefox holds more.
Chrome is NOT faster than FF.
are you sure
am sure that the domain name “flock” is not sexy. would MySpace be myspace if it was named flock. When users said “Go to myspace” it made perfect sense. Facebookme now that’s corny but imagine hearing a person say Flockme. I have a question: Is a browser really just a locator device like the cell phone?
SocialLocator.com
In my experience, if you have 4+ plus heavy tabs open (long pages, flash, images), Chrome is WAY slower than Firefox. Who’s afraid of it? Maybe Flock, but no one else… Chrome is just nonsense I could never understand.
I agree with you specially when page has flash content chrome is much slower than FF.
Any user of Flock looks at Chrome and wonders what they were thinking. Chrome has no customization and it has more compatibility issues than Flock has ever had. The only thing going for Google Chrome is the operative name Google associated with it. IE would have almost 0 marketshare if it weren’t integrated with every fresh install of Windows software as can be shown by how many people not using Windows use IE. FF is a great browser, but that’s all it is. Until you add what addons you want to make it do what you need in a browser, all it does is renders web pages and saves bookmarks. Flock makes the menial tasks you do daily go away. It can check email, check RSS feeds, check your myspace, your facebook, your twitter and your youtube. It can look up media on youtube, photobucket and a myriad of other sites and can allow you to write a blog about something without leaving the something you’re writing about.
Really! Tyler!
And also unlike Chrome, Flock worked when I installed it! Looks pretty sweet to me so far.
i cant name a single person i know that uses flock as their go to browser….how do they make money again?
downloaded 6 million times? wow, thats not even close to some of the popular firefox “addons”
I think the key here is that Flock simply offers a very different browsing experience to users and it will take time getting used to browsing the web with it - just too many things to learn before you can handle it properly.
I’ve been using Flock for 2 months. I downloaded it and within a week, it was my default. It renders pages as well and as quickly as FF and the features are a dream to use. Log on to a web 2.0 site and you’re done. Flock checks messages, friend status, lets you know when anyone you’re friends with has new media or a host of other features. There’s almost no learning curve if you’ve used FF and, in fact, Flock is easier to learn than most FF addons I’ve come across.
I believe there are rooms for both flock and chrome.
Flock might be afraid of the coming soon IE8, which is the best release of IE so far.
The best IE ever shouldnt scare anyone but the last version of Netscape…
if it wasn’t the best IE i would be worried
Sorry, I meant “incrementally the best”. IE8 Beta 2 is pretty good. Still buggy though.
Nobody is afraid of IE8 -> too little, too late. Chrome is actually a nice little browser and based on my experience using it for the past month or so, it generally runs noticeably faster than Firefox 3. I also like the fact that you can create icons in your quick launch toolbar for certain webpages. I’ve got Gmail and Google Reader in there now and use Chrome almost exclusively when I access these services. Very handy.
hmmm chrome is fine for me. but why webkit?
I admit, I haven’t used Chrome since I installed it.
I’ve been willing to give Flock a try time after time. Will it load without crashing on me and will it load quickly? Flock always took like 10 minutes to open and would crash 9 times out of 10. I even have said good things about Flock despite that because I see their commitment and it’s potential.
Hey Adam,
Flock 2 has been in public beta for many months with hardly any reports of crashes. If you run into any, please contact us so we can hunt it down and fix it!
Evan Hamilton
Flock Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com
I’m using the released version of Flock 2.0. No crashes, but it does start a little slow. Once it’s up and running, it’s as fast as FF ever was. Funny thing, FF starts slow too, but it doesn’t do as much.
I ditched Flock a few months ago and won’t be going back. It’s just overloaded with all the ’social media’ integration. I thought I would, but ended up never using the tools I thought would be so useful…. not worth it.
6 million downloads and only 236 threads in their “community” forum? http://www.flock.com/forums
let me choose what features i want, dont just stuff every ’social’ service you can find down my throat…oh wait, thats what Firefox does…ill stick with FF
Did you take a look at the other features in Flock besides just the social networking stuff? It has integrated RSS feeds, a blog editor allowing you to post from any page back to your blog without going to it, a photo uploader allowing the ability to upload as many photos as you want direct from your computer for use on as many sites as you feel like posting them to without searching over and over again and the clipboard for saving the pictures or text snippets you come across that you’d like to use or share with others at a later time, without having to bookmard the page just for that one part. Flock isn’t a one trick pony and it doesn’t have to do everything. The difference between Flock and FF is that FF installs with nothing, just a basic browser. Flock installs with everything, a web pased personal assistant, ready and willing to help you do what you want, when you want.
Nobody uses most of that bloated stuff. That’s most of our points. FF is better, faster, and more customizable. Chrome is the fastest browser out there but it still has issues with flash..
I still use Firefox, ditched chrome after install
Just today after i discovered the web inspector on Safari i decided to switch from Firefox, so I can finally use a light and fast browser that doesn’t suck all my ram
I’m a fan of Flock for social networking - it’s actually pretty cool, IMHO.
social networking is dead ..long live flock !!
Wow, maybe Mozilla should focus on 1 browser instead of 3…
Chrome rules… kicks FireFox 3’s butt…
Honestly I uninstalled ff3 and re-installed firefox 2 for web development… but it kills me to open it…
Much rather use Chrome…
Didn’t Chrome like took 10% of the browser market in a single day?
You mean close 1% actually, then dropped back to nearly zero.
10% in a day?. not even IE7 or FF3 have archived such a thing.
If Chrome weren’t associated with Google, would you have heard about it? Take a look at any media attention given and just see why a browser that can’t even render 100% of pages or work with a toolbar built by the same company has garnered so much media attention. There’s a better browser built off the same core as Chrome, but nobody uses it because it’s not associated with Google. http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php Funny thing, one of the most requested features for Google Chrome is already integrated into this version, namely AdBlock Plus. Take a look, Chrome is the poor cousin, it just has Google to advertise.
Nobody uses Flock i bet :/
The last time I saw a Flock, I got poop on my head!!
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“I believe there are rooms for both flock and chrome.”
Me too… the bathroom and the guestroom. (respectively)
All these comments and no mention of Opera? For shame. Gotta love mouse gestures.
afraid of chrome?? why should they, nobody use it.
In the long term, I see browsers meeting user goals based on an a-la carte menu of functionality that allows users to pick and choose the functionality they need from both the browser and third parties. I think we are a long way off from this as of yet, but that Flock will provoke further innovation in the browser wars that appear to now be heating up. I’m interested to see how Microsoft responds in 2009. I think that if Internet Explorer loses market share, we will see a version of Internet Explorer incorporate more features like Flock as a way of holding on to the users it has.
-Bobby Fishkin
CEO Reframeit.com
“I see browsers meeting user goals based on an a-la carte menu of functionality that allows users to pick and choose the functionality they need from both the browser and third parties.”
If this were truly what users wanted, the linux desktop would be much more popular.
Users want something that works and is set up the way they like out of the box. If they have to put any thought into their browsing experience, they aren’t going to bite. Google realizes this, and all their products reflect that.
i hv used both flock and chrome…flock luks gud but too chaotic to wrk wit…chrome’s simple and sweet!!
Learn how to write, please
The differences between Flock and Chrome are night and day. Chrome runs fast, but has more bugs than fixes. Flock runs like a symphony, all of its parts in harmony with each other. It runs with only slightly more resources than FF, yet it does at least 10 times more with those resources. It allows seamless integration of a blog editor, an RSS feed reader, an imbedded email application and a myriad of other features, all geared at making your web experience more lucrative. If you’re looking only to view web pages without utilizing any of the possibilites of the internet as it stands today then this is definitely not the browser for you, stick with Chrome. Flock is made for those willing to realize what the internet could be.
Flock is a weird one in my eyes. I think that its an interesting and well executed idea for what is, but the problem is that with such a huge focus on socialness, it doesn’t really work in any other context. Even the people who use all the major social networks want to get away from that aspect sometimes.
Flock seems to make more sense as some sort of extension to Firefox rather than its own executable. I’ve never really been sure what to make of it.
Hey Sean,
You make a fair point, which is why we’ve built Flock off of Firefox. If you close our features (which you can easily do) then you still get the stable, fast, and secure browsing that Firefox offers. Open up our features when you need them, close ‘em when you don’t.
Evan Hamilton
Flock Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com
If you don’t want or don’t need to use the social stuffs, just keep usinf FF.
If you don’t always need them, just close FF’s side bar.
If you’re addicted to social networking, use Flock.
Is that simple.
I was one of Flock biggest supporters back in version 1.0. what bothered me is that they were very wary of criticism. they went from a better design to a bad design. they seem to be unaware that the more features they add. the harder they need to work for them to look natural into the design or not too flashy. the way they handled the extensions section, how themes for flock were never released. how little they have done to make sure the best firefox extensions get to work with flock. etc.
6 million downloads for a 3 years product is horrible. no wonder even the guys at Opera crack up when someone brings Flock into the conversation. too bad. i actually like most in the browser. what i hate is how they manage it. i cannot believe it only has 6 million downloads. i truly can`t. truly sad.
Hey Avatar,
It bums me out to see that you feel we are wary of criticism (though I’ll admit that statement in itself is a big ironic). I spend much of my day reading the piles of feedback we get on our forums, in our feedback tool, and across many social networks from people using Flock. This feedback gets (vociferously) pushed to the rest of the team and informs many of our decisions about the product. We don’t act on everything (it’d be impossible to) but we do act on the most significant pain points for people using Flock.
I’m confused by some of your statements here. Most Firefox extensions work in Flock. We have two themes available now and more coming soon.
I totally, fully agree that the more we add the harder it gets to fit it all in. That’s a constant design challenge for us and the next major iteration of Flock will likely be primarily focused on cleaning up the interface and more elegantly fitting everything in.
We do listen to feedback, and I appreciate you providing yours.
Evan Hamilton
Flock Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com
I use flock at work and at home and generally I’m happy with it. I like the RSS feed reader, the social interaction it gives me and that I can use firefox add ons with it. It’s not a bad browser, but honestly I look at is as more of a very moded version of FireFox, I use chrome for leisure. It’s faster, easier to move through and I really like the dashboard. BUT chrome doesn’t have add ons yet, or handle RSS. But I installed it on day one and it doesn’t update automatically (unlike Flock)
Over all, it’s not a bad browser. It’s just different.
desperately waiting for chrome release on Mac …. FF always makes my MBA hang ..
- Raza
http://www.confiz.com
your offshore development partner
I use FF3 & Chrome… Chrome’s just come out in beta and is sure to continue improvements. True its funny to display some sh*t properly, but its fast and never crashes (on vista at least). FF3 is far more advanced, with millions of ways to go, but then it does crash when your not careful about the amount of add-ons you put in there. Never heard of Flock before, so I’ll try it, but the above comments make me weary. Opera’s pretty good too.
I been using flock for an year and love it.
Google guys intentionally created friction among browser war so that Browser guys can improve with Chrome Heat which ultimately Brings much advantage to Google and Google AdSense Java Script, Google Apps. IE is slow in executing AdSense JS [deliberately did] which upsets Google Guys.
So Google guys wants every Browser company to Improve Fast and they don’t want to compete instead they need much Improvement which IE slow down here.
Browser is the only Entry point to the WWW, if that entry is not Smooth Google become Upset :(.
There is lot behing Chrome strategy.
I used to be a big fan. Even tried the beta ver. last week. It is too slow. I love Chrome for speed. When I need addons I use Firefox. To keep FF up to speed I have most of my addons switched off. I switch them on only when I need them. Flock is now going backwards. They need to invent something toally new to tackle the speed issues. That alone makes using flock a total non option at the moment. Sorry guys… hope you can make it work. Would building on webkit be any better? doubt it but who knows
Hey DC,
Flock 2.0’s performance is comparable to Firefox 3’s, with a tiny hit from the features we’ve integrated. If you’re experiencing significantly slower speeds in Flock compared to Firefox, you may be experiencing a bug: please email me.
Being based on Firefox is obviously a blessing and a curse…while we’re based on them, we’re unlikely to run any faster than they do. Whether this will always be the situation, I can’t speak to, but we’re as aware of speed complaints as Mozilla is, and we’ll help them in any way to make the next version of Gecko faster.
Evan Hamilton
Flock Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com
Flock, not bad but its slow than rest of others available. I wud go 4 Chrome and Safari and I luv it
I’ve tried IE7. I’ve tried Chrome. I’ve tried Opera. I’ve tried Safari. I’ve tried Flock. I’ve tried Maxthon, Avant, what not.
Nothing comes close to Mozilla’s Firefox + Prism combo. Prism for web apps and Firefox with addons for the web. Try customising Firefox’s configuration and add a few essential addons, and it performs better and has more functionality than ANY browser on the market.
I wanna see which browser matches Firefox 3.1’s speed with tracemonkey and pipelining enabled with initialpaint delay set to 0.
All your Flock are belong to us.
I use Flock and Chrome and IE. I find Flock most useful for working with the social networks, email, RSS feeds, etc. I use Chrome for extreme fast browsing with simplistic purposes. Also, IE 8 has fast browsing. Neither IE nor Chrome have the features that Flock has. Flock is more intuitive and interactive, just needs to pick up the browsing speed a bit more.
Hey ppedersen,
Thanks for the kind words! Have you tried 2.0 yet? As it’s based on Firefox 3, performance is significantly better especially over time, with many tabs open, and with extensions installed. Shoot me a line and let me know what you think of the performance!
Evan Hamilton
Flock Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com
I wonder what’s wrong with 80% of the people who commented here. I bet they never tried flock. Flock is actually not that bad, it’s actually great for people who love social networking (but I’m not that kind of person) anyways, there are really times when flock seems useful, when writing a blog post for example because I can easily write one via flock.
But hey, just my 5 cents,
Kevin Paquet, pinoyteens.net
All the bells and whistles don’t mean anything. This is a browser we are talking about and the average person just wants something simple, reliable and fast. From what I’ve read, Flock eats up memory and slows the computer down. So much for that. I don’t think it will take anything from IE or Firefox.
Craig
http://www.budgetpulse.com
Hey Craig,
Flock 2.0 doesn’t use much more memory than Firefox 3. Previous versions may have been slower (and that may be what commenters above are referring to), but we’ve optimized significantly at this point. If you find Firefox 3’s performance acceptable, then you’ll find Flock’s acceptable.
Evan Hamilton
Flock Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com
I never fully trust the comments, since most of the times are made by fanatics for another browser (or another OS, or another league, or another party, …), but I do use them as a warning and then I try myself and I make my own opinion.
Who own others’ opinions, is just a lazy person.
I use chrome’s incognito window all the time, and I mean ALL THE TIME!
other then that, it is not that special. I use FF still as primary browser
Flock is Way to resource heavy…especially on our poor little Windows PCs - it’s too much. I think it’s great to have your social networks and RSS feeds so easy to access and maybe I’m old school but I’m happy with my low RAM Chrome browser + web RSS reader + instant messaging app (Digsby) that provides everything the Flock Sidebar adds as far as social networking (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Email, etc. etc.)
Hey Lateef,
Are you still experiencing these performance issues in Flock 2.0? 2.0 should be about on par with Firefox 3 performance…if it’s not, you may be experiencing a bug and we’ll want to crush that. Feel free to email me at the address below.
Evan Hamilton
Flock Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com
The goal of Flock is probably different from those of FF and Chrome and IE. It seems it works hard to provide out-of-box desktop extensions for the web applications ppl use everyday. With tight integration with webapps/services, such as myspace, it serves a centralized portal/control panel of users online content. I think this is a valid direction.
I actually used Flock for a while, but then my iMacros extension stopped working there. So I moved back to FF3.
Does everything somehow relate to iMacros? And why is it always in bold type when you tell us about it?
Good job Flock!!
It works great for me! No problems. I don’t think the average Flock user cares whether it uses more resources than Chrome or about losing the option to add all those social networking extensions you need to add separately in Firefox.
Flock saves me a lot of time. I can focus on social networking and my new media tasks as opposed to finding the right mix of extensions that may or may not do the same thing.
I’ll tell you one thing yeah FF is cool but the new one crashes like crazy
I have used Flock as a back up and it NEVER crashed and it’s cool
It honestly beats me why anyone who uses social networking on a regular basis would use any browser *other* than Flock, and I include Firefox when I say that.
Flock is the only browser I use, and I’ve used it for more than a year now. All of the Firefox plugins I need work fine with it too.
Sure, Chrome is petite, but it’s not exactly feature-laden for anyone who uses Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, whatever. And the new media RSS feature in Flock is killer. Someone adds new videos on Qik? There they are on your “My World” home page, along with the new photos your friends have posted on Flickr and Facebook.
If you use social networking, Flock is definitely the way to go. If you don’t, Firefox is just fine.
I’ve been using Chrome for a good month now and I have absolutely zero problems with it. Much faster than the other browsers I’ve used.
who told u chrome rules sucks have u tried loading engadget in it on 1024 by 760px try it its not what it should look like @ all makes engadget look too vertical havent tried flock yet but i might have to install it .anyway kudos to flock .but i think u instead of integrating all the myspace and what not @ start why dont u make those available like an appstore where people can select em and add em instead of bundling em like that remember people like the browser to be theirs customised to their own tastes not your own default tast of social networking sites
Actually, when I started Flock the very first time, it loaded as any other web browser would. When I signed onto my Myspace to check something, my account was added to the sidebar, same with Facebook, same with Youtube, same with Twitter. It gives you the ability to add as you go without worrying about a web app store. It’s like getting into a new car and finding out that all of those features you had to pay extra for were there already, but you never knew about them until they’re needed and they didn’t cost any extra.
I read some of your comments, and I am shocked you guys dislike Flock. Flock is the best browser out there. It is like an upgrade to Firefox. You just have to give it a try, and you will fall in love with it and be addicted to it.
Flock is just so boring. Chrome is good. But, Firefox steals the show!
I agree that Chrome is work considering that it’s was released just few months back. But FF & IE are experienced players with many added features, so Chrome might take few years to surpass any of these browsers.