Can a social web browser change the way we surf the web?
Flock 1.0 is out, and it’s branding itself as a social browser. What that means is that they’ve integrated a number of online applications and social networks in the browser, easily accessible via buttons and sidebars. You can post tweets, see what your Facebook friends are up to, upload photos to Flickr, or even post blog posts right then and there.
Sounds great, huh?
Actually, Flock is a great browser – read my review over at Devlounge, and do check it out for yourself as well.
My question, however, is if this is the future? Online applications being branded into browsers, the next logical step now that each and every social network’s got an API to connect to. And if that actually is the next step, how will this change how we browse the web?
What do you think? Is Flock 1.0 a pointer of thing to come?
Related reading:
I’m skeptical; since you gave it a great review, I’ll try it out. But….
The reason I’m initially on the fence is I have experienced nothing but dissapointment from other social aggregators (Netvibes: boo; Spokeo: meh; and likewise for many others). Maybe because this is a browser, a progam people have been working on, it could work.
In my opinion, this could be a way to monetize Web 2.0… at least partially. My contention is that one of the reasons these things are free is because they’re usually not good enough to pay for; maybe if we got something that blows your mind and really kicks ass, hell, maybe we could actually sell it. Maybe if there’s a “Premium” Flock 2.0, they could make a profit… maybe even pay a little kickback to MySpace, Facebook, YouTube for opening up some code (I mean, more than they’re doing now). Anyways, I’ll try it out per your recommendation, but for now I’m playing the part of Debbie Downer (sorry).
By Adrian Palacios on November 16, 2007 6:53 am
Hey Adrian, have you tried Spokeo 2.0 that just came out 2 weeks ago? It’s completely different from before; in fact, a lot of people like it so far. Try it out again (the secret new functionality can be found under “Add”), and I think you’ll have a deeper understanding of what open social graph should be.
By Harrison on November 16, 2007 1:03 pm
I understand the concepts of Flock, and with the way the web seems to be going, it was only a matter of time before it happened anyway. Personally, though, I don’t want my browser to be socially involved. Browsing is something that will NEVER go away as long as the internet doesn’t, and the extra bloat that goes into the browser will inevitably bog it down.
The only reason I would use Flock over Firefox is because it doesn’t have the memory issues. If I could get browser sync for Safari, that would easily be my browser of choice. It’s fast and very simple.
So… while I understand why Flock exists, I personally hope it doesn’t lead the future of web browsers. My intuition tells me it will, though. At least it will in the short-term. We’ll see.
By Ryan on November 21, 2007 4:52 pm
I wish I could go all Safari, but I need the developer tools. The 3.0 version that comes with Leopard (and is distributed to Tiger via the update) is great.
By Thord Daniel Hedengren on November 23, 2007 9:30 pm