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Many of you may have recently read about "The Coop", a Mozilla Labs project to "experiment with adding social tools to the web browser." There has been much discussion about this project as it relates to Flock, and whether or not this is good news for us. One example: this morning TechCrunch posted a story titled "Mozilla To Build Social Networking Into Firefox: Bad News For Flock"
My version of the title reads "Mozilla To Build Social Networking Into Firefox: Fantastic News For Flock!"
Why is my version so different?
First, Flock shares with Mozilla a passion to innovate and provide choice to online users around the globe. Mozilla's interest in this specific area is an enormous validation of the premise upon which Flock is based: that there are today massive opportunities to truly innovate the browser for a very large market and to support, simplify and enhance emergent online behavior like social computing and social media. This is what Flock has been innovating around and working on for more than two years -- this is why Flock exists!
As we all know, online social activity and "the participatory web" are not fads, and Flock isn't the only the company supporting these dynamic activities. We're enthusiastic believers in the power of people, and in the Internet as a dynamic and interactive platform. Online behavior has changed dramatically over the last decade, but web browsers have changed only incrementally. We are building Flock for the hundreds of millions of people who want to do more than just look at the web. We want to give them a convenient, integrated, rich Internet experience.
Second, rapid prototyping and visualization is an important step in imagining new products and services, but the hard work is what follows. That hard work is all about making compelling new capabilities Dependable, Discoverable, Usable and Fun for average, active Internet users. This is what our teams are focused on company-wide, and we're on target to deliver this experience in our 1.0 browser release later this year.
And finally, more efforts from more companies to create consumer value in this space are entirely expected. New behavior drives new opportunity. Alternatives and choice in the market is great for users and - for companies - these competitive dynamics drive focus, an appropriate sense of urgency and the clarity to push through challenging tradeoffs and execute, execute, execute. Wash, rinse and repeat. As I've said before, execution is our focus in 2007. This is what I see happening at Flock every day!
As always, I welcome your comments and feedback – either here or via email (shawn at flock.com).
Thanks,
Shawn
Blogged with Flock
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Other Systems & Languages
Thanks for the post, Shawn. I still believe in Flock!
I read the article yesterday posted on Slashdot and didn't find any content that was compelling enough to see The Coop as a "Flock-killer". I also disagree with the writer's view of Flock as vaporware. While Flock is still in beta, I have been using Flock as my primary browser for over a year both at work and at home. On occassion, I have found a bug and reported it. The responses have always been expedient and resolved in future builds. But overall, Flock has made my browsing so much more valuable and productive. Flock also has a significant lead in social browsing and thus has a better understanding of what works and what doesn't in a social browser. I'm very much looking forward to the 1.0 release but also enjoy the opportunity to collaborate and work with your team to make Flock a best-in-class browser experience. To me, Flock is largely the social browser, but also believe your team has done a phenomenal job at developing a community which is truly the foundation of social networking.
I have two questions though. How does Flock plan to monetize the product to keep your operations running into the future? Will social web sites pay to have their API integrated into the browser?
On a separate note...can someone add a user login to the blog so we can comment without having to log into the system via the Forums first? (Maybe I'm missing something?)
Please thank the entire team at Flock for all the hard work that has been put into this great product.
I'm proud to be a Flockstar! Flock on.
Hey webonics,
Thanks for the kind words. Folks like you are what makes this job great.
Regarding the blog login...I will put that on the requirements for the new website. Good to know that would be an appreciated feature (feel free to email any other website notes to me).
Flock on,
Evan Hamilton
Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com
Monsters are not Myths: Flocking out since 2004.
www.monstersarenotmyths.com
www.myspace.com/monstersarenotmyths
Thanks for your post, your active involvement in our community and this feedback.
Flock will always be a free product and monetizes its browser the same way Firefox monetizes its browser. FF has a partnership with Google and is their default search provider. Google monetizes searches performed via FF and shares revenue with FF.
Flock has a partnership with Yahoo! and they provide the default search within our browser. Of course, user choice is paramount and in both cases, users can select any search provider they prefer.
Thanks for the question.
Hi webonics,
We've added a login to the blog page. Watch out for a pretty extensive site redesign we've got in the works, :-).
Thx,
Mike Dosik
Engineering Manager
Flock, Inc.
So is Flock .8 based on Firefox 2.0 going to come out when Firefox 3.0 is released? What's the great hold up with this release?
Joe,
I share your frustration about how long it has been since Flock did its last significant release.
If you've had an opportunity to read my prior postings, you know that all the work afoot at the company today is about upgrading our capability to release on a regular cycle throughout the year. Today at Flock there is no "hold up". There are the challenges of getting new and innovative work done while ensuring a usable, dependable and fun experience, but our team loves this challenge and we are making great strides each day and each week on these fronts.
We've hit all our internal deadlines so far this year and are tracking to successfully premiere several new product releases and upgrades in 2007.
Thanks for your interest and your desire to get your hands on our next release Joe. We will be announcing our next release date in the near future.
All I want is to be able to type in an address, and have Flock autocomplete the extension...eg, type cnet and be brought to cnet.com. I dont want to see Yahoo anymore!
I'm mostly cranky that they stole my product name!
Ctrl+Enter will add www. and .com to your chosen URL. Ctrl+Shift+Enter adds www. and .org to your URL.
This works for most browsers on most platforms.
I've taken a look at the developer preview (posting from it now), and it's moving along quite nicely. A few new features are still being polished, but it's looking positive.
"Execute, execute, execute". That is I believe the motto for Flock in 2007; however I don't see that translated in actions. Cormorant seems to be dormant and Flock blog stays days and days without a new post.
Is Flock sleeping the Mexican "siesta"? I want to see more execution in the way Firefox does. I love Flock and can't wait to see more action up front.
"Execute, execute, execute".
Regards,
Omar.-
Omar,
I'm curious as to how you're measuring Firefox's execution.
Per Mike Dosik on the Flock-Dev mailing list, 10 April 2007: "The developers are pushing hard to get a lot in place in the next several days so the product will probably be a bit shaky for a spell."
http://lists.flock.com/pipermail/flock-dev/2007-April/001076.html
One possible reason for the silence is to allow the developers to polish the Cormorant release. I'd prefer a great build over a shaky, unstable, memory-hogging once.
http://svn-mirror.flock.com/trac/flock/timeline shows code checkins. It shows that there are checkins on the weekend. I'd call that commitment. The staff at Flock are executing, but some of this is not readily apparent to most people outside of the company.
Flock has always been the best browser I have used so far, last June I started using Flock but by this April I'm back on Firefox 2. The reason being that FF2 is a bit faster and Flock hasn't had a significant release since quite a long time. I miss each of those features.. the RSS reader, the photobar [not the Blog editor as Performancing has sorted that out] and in my opinion despite being based on the same core as FF, Flock is definitely a different browser. Despite using FF I still don't get that power user functionality that I had with Flock.
It had everything within reach be it posting photos to Photobucket or reading the latest on the best RSS reader I've seen. I hope you guys get a major release soon so that I can switch back again! Cormorant... I'm waiting. Best of luck folks! :)
ChrisVance: You've got it. We're not pushing a lot of Flock press out currently because there's no point until 0.8.x is dependable (in addition to being exciting and fun). This doesn't mean we're slacking off here. In fact, we've been steadily plugging away on all aspects of Flock. We've had several "developer dashes" in the last couple of months, during which the developers stay at Flock HQ until ungodly hours racing to reach a specific deadline. Mike Dosik and I have been putting in extra hours to generate the (exciting) new Flock.com requirements. Shawn Hardin has been on the phone or in meetings nonstop expanding our connections, our roadmaps, and our vision of the product.
Everyone is truly putting a lot of work into Flock 0.8.x, and I think it will show.
Thanks for everyone's continued support, feedback, and patience.
Evan Hamilton
Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com
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blog.evanhamilton.com
Hello from Brazil.
I´ll try Flock. I like innovation so much and Flok look like great for me, at first time.
Give me just a little time to "discover" and learn about, and I´ll post at my blog.
Best regards
UPDATE: That above was me, before to register.
Man, this a really great browser. I had no time to use all tools, but to post at my blogs is easy and fast, and this is important for me.
Good luck!
Hey davidnob,
Thanks! Flock on!
Evan Hamilton
Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com
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blog.evanhamilton.com
Great read, I like both Firefox and Flock. I promote them both on my website. Flock has recently replaced Firefox as my browser of choice and I can't remember the last time I blogged without it.
Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! azchafvorgs
Thanks for the info. Flock Browser is always best.
thank you
mirc indir
kelebek
thank you
kelebek
I have not heard anything recently about "The Coop"
Not surprised, I'm just saying.
-erich13
http://EricHerberholz.GooglePages.com
Once thought that the missing will go farther and farther with your eyes away from the last time since dropping, condensation on Jingling-glass windows of night. Once thought that the longer the skinny obsessed with the will of your dreams away from the last injured, struggle into the hearts of countless wounds guitar. I can also pick up the Metin2 gold from the soldiers in the game.