Flock is a discontinued web browser that specialized in providing social networking and Web 2.0 facilities built into its user interface.[4] Earlier versions of Flock used the Gecko HTML rendering engine by Mozilla. Version 2.6.2, released on January 27, 2011, was the last version based on Mozilla Firefox.[5][6] Starting with version 3, Flock was based on Chromium and so used the WebKit rendering engine.[7][8] Flock was available as a free download, and supported Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and, at one time, Linux as well.
 | |
 Flock 3.5.3 running on Windows 7 displaying its new tab page | |
| Developer(s) | Flock, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Initial release | April 11, 2005[1] |
| Final release | 3.5.3.4641 
/ 1 February 2011 |
| Preview release | none (n/a) [±] |
| Operating system | Windows, OS X, Linux[2] |
| Available in | Catalan, Chinese (both Traditional and Simplified), English (US, Australian, British, Canadian), Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Italian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal + African Portuguese Speaking Countries and Brazil), Russian, Slovak, Spanish (Latin American and Spain) |
| Type | Web browser Feed reader |
| License | Freeware[3] |
| Website | Official website archives |
History
editFlock was the successor to Round Two, who raised money from Bessemer Venture Partners, Catamount Ventures, Shasta Ventures and other angel investors. Bart Decrem and Geoffrey Arone co-founded the company.[11] Flock raised $15 million in a fourth round of funding led by Fidelity Ventures on May 22, 2008, for an estimated total of $30 million, according to CNET. The company's previous investors, Bessemer Venture Partners, Catamount Ventures, and Shasta Ventures, also participated in the round.[12]
In January 2011, Flock Inc. was acquired by Zynga.[13] The browser has been discontinued, with support ending April 26, 2011.[14]
Features
editFlock 2.5 integrated social networking and media services including MySpace,[15] Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Blogger, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, etc.[16] When logging into any of the supported social services, Flock could track updates from friends: profiles, uploaded photos, and more. Flock 2.5 added Twitter Search functionality, multi-casting of status updates to multiple services, and the introduction of instant messaging via Facebook Chat in the browser.
Other features include:
- Native sharing of text, links, photos and videos[17]
- A "Media Bar" showing preview of online videos and photos as well as subscription to photo and video feeds[8][18]
- A feed reader supporting Atom, RSS, and Media RSS[15] feeds[19]
- A blog editor and reader, allowing direct posting into any designated blog[20]
- A Webkit-mail component allowing users to check supported web-based email off site, compose new messages, and drag-and-drop pictures and videos from the "Media Bar" or webclipboard into a new email message[21]
- Support for third-party add-ons, including a number of Firefox extensions[8][22]
Reception
edit- Download.com rated it 5 out of 5 [23]
- Ranked no. 6 on PC World's list of the 100 best products of 2008 [24][25]
In December 2007, Flock won the Mashable Open Web Awards for Applications and Widgets[26] and in March 2008, Flock won the South By Southwest[27] Web Award for Community.[28]
CNET gave the Mac OS X version of Flock 1.0 the title of "Best Mac Software of 2007".[29] PC World's Harry McCracken reviewed Flock as his "New Favorite Web Browser".[30]
In February 2008, AOL announced that it would discontinue support for the Netscape browser, and recommended Flock and Firefox as alternative browsers to its userbase of Netscape 9 users.[31] For the Netscape 8 userbase, AOL recommended only the Flock browser to its users.[32] In March 2008, Flock announced that they had seen "nearly 3 million downloads" and a 135% increase in active users in the first two months of 2008. They also announced "more than 70 percent of Flock users making it their default browser of choice".[33]
In May 2008, Flock won the Social Networking category of the Webby Awards.[34][35] Flock was nominated for this award along with Facebook, Bebo and Ning.
When Flock's discontinuation was announced in April 2011, reviewer Joey Sneddon of OMG! Ubuntu! offered the analysis: "Whether this was down to poor implementation design wise (one needs only glance at 'Rockmelt' for an example of a social browser done right) or just general apathy towards having alerts from twitter, flickr, facebook, digg et al. in your face all of the time is moot: Flock has flocked off and for all its innovation it never quite lived up to its own hype."[9]
Awards
editUpon exiting beta, Flock won a number of awards:[23]
- Webby Award in social networking, 2008[24]
- SXSW community Award, 2008 [23][24]
- Open Web Award for Applications and Widgets, 2007 [23]
- "Eddy Winner": Flock 2.0 24th Annual Macworld Editors' Choice Awards [36]
See also
edit- Comparison of feed aggregators
- Comparison of web browsers
- List of feed aggregators
- List of web browsers
- RockMelt, a competing social web browser
- Push technology
References
edit- ^ Festa, Paul (April 11, 2005). "Start-up wants to improve on Firefox". CNET. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
- ^ "Flock Global Page". Softpedia. SoftNews. Archived from the original on December 15, 2013. Retrieved December 15, 2013.
- ^ "Flock (Discontinued) 3.5.3.4641 / 2.6.1". Softpedia. SoftNews. Retrieved December 15, 2013.
- ^ Flock Browser – Built on Mozilla's Firefox Archived March 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Flock 2.6.2 Release Notes". Flock. Archived from the original on February 22, 2011. Retrieved September 27, 2014.
- ^ "Powered by Mozilla". Flock. Archived from the original on October 30, 2010. Retrieved September 27, 2014.
- ^ Iedtke, Michael (June 16, 2010). "Flock Browser Gets Faster, Friendlier With Upgrade". ABC. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
- ^ a b c Wayner, Peter (October 19, 2010). "Top 10 specialty Web browsers you may have missed". InfoWorld. p. 2. Retrieved October 28, 2010.
- ^ a b Sneddon, Joey (April 2011). "End of the line for Flock social browser". OMG Ubuntu. Retrieved April 15, 2011.
- ^ Flock Inc (April 15, 2012). "Support for Flock browsers has been discontinued". Archived from the original on April 29, 2011. Retrieved April 10, 2012.
- ^ Flock Browser - Company Info Archived March 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Flock draws $15 million for social browsing". CNET. Archived from the original on November 16, 2011. Retrieved August 6, 2012.
- ^ Wasserman, Todd (January 7, 2011). "Zynga Buys Social Web Browser Flock". Mashable. Retrieved August 6, 2012.
- ^ Van Grove, Jennifer (April 12, 2011). "Flock Shutters Social Web Browser". Mashable.
- ^ a b Official release announcement on Shawn Hardin's blog Archived October 18, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Activate Services and Unite Your Social Networks in the People Sidebar". User guides. Flock. Archived from the original on October 20, 2008. Retrieved October 22, 2008.
- ^ "Share Pictures, Text, Audio and Video". User guides. Flock. Retrieved October 22, 2008.
- ^ "View and Share Media through the Media Bar". User guides. Flock. Retrieved October 22, 2008.
- ^ "Track Feeds". User guides. Flock. Retrieved October 22, 2008.
- ^ "Activate and Manage Blogs". User guides. Flock. Retrieved October 22, 2008.
- ^ "Review: Strong, innovative Web browsers emerge". Associated Press. Archived from the original on June 28, 2008. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
- ^ "Get or Build Add-ons for Flock". User guides. Flock. Retrieved October 22, 2008.
- ^ a b c d "Flock's press".
- ^ a b c "Flock Named As One of PC World's "100 Best Products of 2008"". Retrieved June 17, 2008.
- ^ "The 100 Best Products of 2008". PC World. May 26, 2008. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
- ^ Adam Hirsch 86 (December 21, 2007). "Open Web Awards Winners". Mashable.com. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Web Awards Archived March 23, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ McCarthy, Caroline (March 11, 2008). "Oh wait! SXSWi had Web Awards, too". cnet.com. Archived from the original on August 9, 2011. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
- ^ Parker, Jason (December 20, 2007). "Best Mac Software of 2007". Download.com. Archived from the original on February 15, 2008. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
- ^ I Have A New Favorite Web Browser: Flock Archived November 8, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Netscape 9 Users: Time to Flock or Firefox". Blog.netscape.com. February 20, 2008. Archived from the original on August 13, 2011. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
- ^ "Netscape 8 Update Forthcoming: You Can Flock Too!". Blog.netscape.com. Archived from the original on July 30, 2011. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
- ^ "Flock Browser Use Growing Dramatically". Reuters.com. Archived from the original on May 3, 2008. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
- ^ "2008 Webby Award Winners". Webbyawards.com. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
- ^ Flock Wins a Webby Award for Best in Social Networking Archived May 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Michaels, Philip. "Eddy Winner: Flock 2.0". Macworld.com. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
External links
edit- Official website archives at the Wayback Machine (archived 25 March 2011)