Are you an online socialite? Do you find yourself spending hours upon hours on social networking sites?

Don’t worry, you have no reason to be guilty. A 2010 survey from Nielsen Co. showed that social networking has taken over as the number one online activity, with users spending an average of 22.7 percent of online time on various social networking sites.

It is with these people in mind that Flock, one of the latest web browsers available, was created. Flock fully integrates many social networking services, right into the browser itself.
Users will be prompted to ‘add services’ (Facebook, Twitter etcetera) upon the first start-up of the browser. Subsequent uses of the browser will automatically log the user into all the social networking services they have added, and display the updates they have received since the last time they have logged in.

These updates are organized neatly in a sidebar under the individual tabs for each social networking service. What this means is that users are able to surf the net, yet have a social networking service, such as Twitter, in view at all times. Users are even able to update their statuses or tweet directly from the sidebar!

Flock also made design considerations specially for bloggers. Upon configuring their blogging service, bloggers are able to blog directly from the sidebar. They are also able to drag and drop images into their post directly, further simplifying the user’s blogging experience.

You will also love Flock when doing research for your assignments. Flock has a “web clipboard”, which allows you to drag and drop text, links and images for easier viewing later; Flock is your nifty little research assistant.

Apart from the added features, Flock is very similar to Firefox and Safari. Users of these browsers will find no problems switching to Flock. However, this also means that if you are not a fan of social networking, Flock brings nothing exciting to the table for you.

As it is a relatively new browser, Flock also has a few bugs and glitches from time to time. Certain flash and java pages loaded with errors which put a bump in an otherwise smooth surfing experience.

Despite that, at the end of the day Flock is still a stellar web browser for a newcomer. Wait for an update to fix the few minor bugs if you do not need the extra features; you are not missing out on anything by sticking with a browser like Firefox or Safari. But if you like social networking, then Flock together with other socialites today!

Watch the introductory video for Flock below.

Labels: Tech