I’m a social media addict – there, I’ve said it. I’m one of those guys who is regularly checking Twitter and Facebook – both on the go and when I am at my computer, so the idea of a social browser is something that massively appeals to me. I previously reviewed RockMelt and used it for a while, but I found it to be a little buggy and slow and the chat function was a little too disruptive for me.
A friend of mine recently posted to Facebook that she was using a new social browser called Flock so I thought I would check it out and so far, I like it a lot! The browser uses Chromium so has the look and feel and speed of Google Chrome (my browser of choice) so everything is very familiar and nice to use.
The browser works by integrating your chosen social networks in a panel that sits on the right hand side of the browser and automatically updates with new posts. The great thing about this side panel is that users can customise what appears in the feed – not just by social networks but through creating groups - e.g. friends, colleagues, suppliers, news outlets – much in the same way that Twitter’s lists works. In addition, the way that the feed refreshes is not as distracting as one might imagine – it’s a subtle refresh and clicking through to content posted is also done with the greatest of ease! Should you wish to hide the panel at any time, that's also possible.
The right hand panel can also be used to update your status across any registered social networks without having to log in. The only rather odd thing about Flock was that when I imported my bookmarks from my Chrome browser, it important them in reverse order on my taskbar – not sure why this happened…
Below are some screenshots of Flock in action...
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