This ought to cause a ruckus!

A while back a new browser called “Flock” entered the fray to a decidedly mixed response. A couple of months have passed, and I thought I’d revisit this browsing youngster that some are calling a “web 2.0 browser“.

So a quick recap: Flock is a Mozilla based browser that allows users to seamlessly post web content to their blogs, Del.ico.us accounts, and Flickr photo streams. The Del.ico.us support is what first peaked my interest, as it essentially allows the user to have an automated backup of their bookmarks online at all times. As it happens, I’m actually typing this post from Flock Developer Preview 0.5.13.2, and I have to say I’m quite impressed! You can tell the Flock team really gets where the web is going right now, and they’re expanding their feature set to meet that need.

One of my favorite features thus far is the integration of plain toolbar bookmarks and RSS feeds. Instead of asking the user to decide whether they want to bookmark a blog’s main page or RSS feed individually, creating a toolbar bookmark for a site like crashpod simply gives me a dual purpose button: click the center and I am taken to crashpod.net, while clicking off to the right where an arrow indicates further content drops down a list of the last 10 RSS feed items.

Attention to detail like this goes a long way in a market where many new browsers are fighting to justify their relevance. Of course the bread and butter of Flock’s feature set is their blog, bookmark, and photo integration, and while I don’t have Flickr setup yet, tying in my Crashpod wordpress account and Del.ico.us bookmark list was a simple and painless process. The promise of having a permanent online repository of my bookmarks is very enticing indeed, as recent upgrades and reinstalls have gotten me particularly frustrated with the export/import system usually required for web favorites.

If you dismissed Flock when it first made its debut, I urge you to take another look: their developer preview has the feel of a well executed product that would lend itself well to everyday use.