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 GeckoHTML 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
Flock 3.5.3 running on Windows 7 displaying its new tab page
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)
Support for Flock was discontinued in April 2011.[9][10]
Historyedit
Flock 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]
Featuresedit
Flock 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 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]
CNET gave the Mac OS X version of Flock 1.0 the title of "Best Mac Software of 2007".[29]PC World'sHarry 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]
Awardsedit
Upon exiting beta, Flock won a number of awards:[23]
^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.
^ abcWayner, Peter (October 19, 2010). "Top 10 specialty Web browsers you may have missed". InfoWorld. p. 2. Retrieved October 28, 2010.
^ abSneddon, 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.
^ abOfficial 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.
^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