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Being this type of person means that you often have to have multiple browser windows and tabs open at all times, or that you are running several special-purpose applications and plug-ins for the social networking sites you rely on. Or you could just use the free Flock Web browser.
Flock, which has been around for a few years now, is essentially a heavily customized implementation of Firefox. And almost all of this customization is geared toward making it simple to view, interact with and directly create content on Web 2.0 and social networking sites. In Flock, social networks such as Facebook, video sites such as YouTube, and multiple blogging platforms are all integrated into the browser.
In Flock, a user can constantly see the status of their social networks, media and feeds in a sidebar and in a dedicated MyWorld browser tab. Web mail, such as Gmail and Yahoo Mail, is also directly integrated into the browser so that pop-ups are displayed whenever new mail arrives.
The new 2.0 release of Flock doesn’t add that much in the way of new features. Probably the biggest news is the fact that Flock is now based on Firefox 3.0.
Other new features include the addition of integrated support for MySpace and the Revver video-sharing network. Flock also supports the relatively new Media RSS format, making it possible to go to a site that uses Media RSS and directly add that site’s media to the Flock media bar which runs at the top of the browser.
While Flock supports social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, it doesn’t have direct support for more business-oriented networks such as LinkedIn (or for anything business oriented at all).
Also, while Flock is based on Firefox, much of the interface is different, and regular Firefox users may get confused as to where some features and customizations can be accessed.
Still, for those social networking junkies, Flock is an excellent browser for keeping all of the information that you need to have right now, right at your finger tips.
To download the free Flock browser, go to www.flock.com.