What Do Birds of a Feather Do?
I am an admitted digital gadgeteer. Keeping track of all of them is a part-time job, and while it started off as fun, it's become work. Not only do I have to launch four, count-em, four email programs every day, but my iGoogle home is filled with RSS feeds to read, I have blogs to update, and then I get notifications in my email each day about doing on Plaxo or FaceBook or Twitter or LinkedIn or...
I'm not sure Flock is The Answer, but it's an interesting development in the world of Web 2.0.
Flock is a web browser - a "new generation" of web browser, natch - that takes into account all of your social networking applications, purportedly merging your browsing/learning/commenting/sharing experience online.
Flock is an application, just like any other browser - I.E. or FireFox - and will require that you download the software and install it. The download is somewhat lengthy (it took me about 20 minutes on a high-speed connection). As it installs, it allows you to import preferences, home page, bookmarks and other data from other browsers installed on your computer. You can select it as your default browser - meaning, it can be the browser that opens whenever a browser is required. As I've not used Flock before, I'll wait to see if I like it so well I use it all the time!
Upon the initial launch, you're asked to log onto your social networking applications - like Facebook, Gmail, Digg, Flickr, and so on. From that point on, Flock will "automatically activate these services within its features."
Your various networking applications are now shown in tabs, and your friends for each application will appear to the left as you navigate through your tabs.
At first blush, this isn't so very different from having all your social networking sites open in tabs on FireFox - it's more like a single sign-on application than anything else. However, a closer look reveals that it's far more.
Looking at my Blogger tab, I see that a YouTube video that I have embedded on one of my blogs now shows up to the left - indicating that my two networks share this video.
It's clear that I'm just getting started. As with many applications, this one sounds like it might be fun and interesting - but only time and use will be the judge. I'll keep you posted!
Visit my Tech Blog for more stories, or to comment on any of my posts.
I'm not sure Flock is The Answer, but it's an interesting development in the world of Web 2.0.
Flock is a web browser - a "new generation" of web browser, natch - that takes into account all of your social networking applications, purportedly merging your browsing/learning/commenting/sharing experience online.
Flock is an application, just like any other browser - I.E. or FireFox - and will require that you download the software and install it. The download is somewhat lengthy (it took me about 20 minutes on a high-speed connection). As it installs, it allows you to import preferences, home page, bookmarks and other data from other browsers installed on your computer. You can select it as your default browser - meaning, it can be the browser that opens whenever a browser is required. As I've not used Flock before, I'll wait to see if I like it so well I use it all the time!
Upon the initial launch, you're asked to log onto your social networking applications - like Facebook, Gmail, Digg, Flickr, and so on. From that point on, Flock will "automatically activate these services within its features."
Your various networking applications are now shown in tabs, and your friends for each application will appear to the left as you navigate through your tabs.
At first blush, this isn't so very different from having all your social networking sites open in tabs on FireFox - it's more like a single sign-on application than anything else. However, a closer look reveals that it's far more.
Looking at my Blogger tab, I see that a YouTube video that I have embedded on one of my blogs now shows up to the left - indicating that my two networks share this video.
It's clear that I'm just getting started. As with many applications, this one sounds like it might be fun and interesting - but only time and use will be the judge. I'll keep you posted!
Visit my Tech Blog for more stories, or to comment on any of my posts.
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