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Provides: Web browsing
Format: Download (22.8 MB)
Developer: Flock, Inc.
Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4+, PowerPC G3, G4, G5, or Intel Processor, 128MB RAM (256 recommended), 200MB hard drive space
Processor Compatibility: Universal
Price: Free
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 2.0.3

There’s nothing wrong with the Safari browser, but I must admit I really prefer the customization options of Mozilla’s Firefox browser. Safari may give you the web as the designer wants you to see it, but Firefox gives me the web the way I want it.

But I’m also a social media junkie: Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook are just some of the sites I check constantly, along with blogging and e-mailing links to my friends. And now, someone’s taken Firefox and built a web browser that integrates all the social media functions I need.

On the most basic level, Flock is the same browser as Firefox. The same plug-ins work, and though Flock prefers Yahoo! as the seach engine of choice over Google, that’s easily changeable (just as it is in Firefox).

The biggest change in the interface is the sidebar. Once you begin to log into supported sites (like the ones mentioned above, in addition to Flickr, Picasa Web, Digg, and others), Flock allows you add those services to the sidebar, giving you quicker access to the sites and their features. Twitter and Facebook, for example, give you updates on your friends’ statuses (and allow you to update yourself using the sidebar, rather than going to the site). You’ll also get notified if someone comments on your Flickr feed, or if a friend posts a new YouTube video or Diggs a story.

Just above the sidebar are several more shortcuts that will make your online life easier: the MediaBar allows you to watch photo and video feeds that you’ve favorited, so if someone you’re following posts something new on YouTube or Picasa, you’ll know about it. You can also upload photos to supported services by dragging photos into the Media Bar (which will open a file uploader), or, if you’re a blogger, you can drag photos from the Media Bar into built-in blogging application (which supports Blogger, Blogsome, Livejournal, Wordpress, Typepad, and Xanga), and it’ll add the posting code.

Another nice tool for bloggers is the clipboard, where you store text clips, pictures, or URLs that you want to use later. Speaking of URLs, the address bar can also be used as a search bar (again, Yahoo! is the default), and contains one-click buttons for posting a link to Digg or emailing a link. As for emailing, Flock has a button that will open your web mail account (like Gmail or Yahoo), and you can set a preference that clicking on a mail link can open either your web mail account or an e-mail application. If you prefer to check your sites using RSS, you can also set Flock to subscribe to feeds in an external app, a web service (like Google Reader), or its own RSS aggregator in the sidebar.

Now, for the downside. Over time (about every two months) Flock becomes slow and unstable due to “gunk” building up in the user profile. Backing up the important information and creating a new profile takes care of the problem, but it’s still a pain.

Second, Flock have once or twice lost access to sites if those sites change something in their API code. The Flock programmers usually fix these within 24 hours, via their “service update” function.

Third, while Flock integrates a lot of sites, the integration can be a little wonky at times. For example, if you get a Direct Message in Twitter, Flock will let you know. And it will keep letting you know about it until you delete the DM—simply reading it isn’t enough. So if you have a DM you want to keep, the notification stays on. Likewise, Flock keeps telling me that my buddies on Digg have posted new comments, when they haven’t.

But the majority of the features—and the sheer number of them—work so well and I use them so much that they overwhelm the downsides. Plus, it supports just about every Firefox plug-in out there, meaning I can further control my web experience. For users looking for a little more power out of their browser, give Flock a try.