Flocking Back to Chrome

This is the last post I will be making here from Flock, "The Award Winning Social Web Browser Powered by Mozilla." I committed late last week to giving it a test drive, and my plan was to give it a week before drawing any final conclusion. Well, it has been almost a week. Finally.

Let me say a few things about Flock. First, it is a very powerful web browser, certainly. It is absolutely loaded with features. I mean, it's packed so full of social media features that -- well, for me, that's part of the problem. It's overloaded.

I was a long time supporter and promoter of Firefox when Google rolled out their Chrome browser. I tested out Chrome for a while and found it lacking in some areas, bouncing back and forth between Firefox and Chrome for the longest time before finally settling on Chrome (I don't even think I wrote about that decision here) for it's superior speed, streamlined look, and ease of use.

It is for those same reasons that I simply cannot even begin to feel comfortable with Flock. I have been using it exclusively for several days now, and I have found no need to set up the many social media features it includes. In fact, I have found that taking the time necessary to set up such features is something I just don't, well, have time for.

In addition, Flock has on two occasions over the past several days frozen on me and required a restart -- something that has never happened with Chrome, thanks to Chrome's built-in Task Manager with Crash Control, which works beautifully any time a web page freezes up. In Chrome, it's as simple as opening Chrome's Task Manager and disabling the offending web page. No browser restart required.

Another shortcoming I have discovered with Flock is that it doesn't seem to adequately leave me logged in to sites I visit frequently, as both Chrome and Firefox seem to do. That, to me, is an annoyance, and it seems that a social media browser would be designed to keep one logged into social networking sites to provide easy access to those frequently used.

Overall, I would say that if I was still using Firefox primarily, I might be tempted to keep plowing along with Flock and might even some day switch over permanently. Flock and Firefox are both based on the Mozilla platform, and I think Flock can best be described as Firefox for social networkers. However, I only use Firefox as an occasional backup, and there are times when I will go for weeks without even using it at all.

Since I began using Tweetdeck for Twitter at about the same time I began my test drive with Flock, I find that Tweetdeck so fully meets my Twittering needs that there is no use (for me) for the social web features of Flock.

For me, Chrome and Tweetdeck fit the bill, with no added lag to my system, none of the clutter that is so nicely featured in Flock, and none of the browser crashing that requires frequent restarts.

Im sure Flock is exactly what some people are looking for. For me, I prefer the simplicity and reliability of the Chrome browser.

My other posts on Flock are available here and here.

Your comments?

Joe

AJA Press | #TCOT
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#Flock Thoughts

I'm really trying to give Flock an honest test drive. I have been using it [almost] exclusively for two days now. I say almost, because I still have Google Chrome set as my default browser, so whenever I click a link in Tweetdeck, etc., the page is opened in Chrome. However, I have been using Flock for my email, my general browsing, my feed reading, and my blogging (including this post).

I'm told that I'll like it so much I'll start recommending it to people. I don't know yet how likely that is. Here are my latest thoughts.

• Flock is called a "social" browser, because it was designed for social media. While I have a presence on practically every social media site out there, I'm not a big social media guy. I don't find myself yet actually using any of the social media features built into Flock (I've checked them out, but just haven't found them useful for my type of web activity).
• I am not one of the fortunate people who can access the Internet from work. In order to connect at work and check my email or Twitter, I have to plug into a land line and dial up using NetZero (which I keep just for that purpose). Google Chrome is a quick browser that makes what I do over dial up at least bearable. Flock, so far, has seemed just a bit slower.
• Before switching to Google Chrome (and still as an occasional backup), I was a Firefox user -- in fact, a Firefox promoter. Flock is (it seems to me) basically a rebuild of Firefox, enhanced for social media. I switched from Firefox to Chrome because Chrome was faster and Firefox would crash unexpectedly. While Flock hasn't crashed yet, it has been as slow as Firefox, and I can't imagine why it wouldn't crash eventually, being built on the same platform.

I will continue to use Flock through the rest of this week, though I feel like I'm having Chrome withdrawal symptoms. I really haven't had a chance to put it through all of the paces, which I hope to do in the next couple of days. I'll update regularly on my experience, and let you know what the final outcome is toward the end of the week.

Your comments?

Joe

AJA Press | #TCOT
podsafe music network | ioda promonet | magnatune | airplay direct
ariel publicity | kennedy resource development | populuxe records | indie heaven
miles high productions | iris distribution | chavis records | after hours music

Test Driving #Flock

I have been challenged on to give Flock a whirl. I am a reformed Firefox user, which means that I have switched from Firefox to Google Chrome for my primary web browsing, and use Firefox as a backup from time to time.

Flock is based on the Mozilla platform, as is Firefox, so one might think that switching wouldn't be so hard, but I have a couple of comments/observations on this my first day of playing around with Flock.

• Flock is so feature-packed that it appears to have a high learning curve (meaning, you can't just jump in and get it right off the bat).
• Many of the features I used to enjoy in Firefox are available in Flock, which is a plus.
• Flock, so far, does not appear to be as fast as Google Chrome, but does seem to function faster on my system than Firefox.

That's about it for now, other than to say that I'm writing this post in Google Chrome, because I'm just not yet thrilled by Flock. I did, however, commit to giving it a week before I either give up on it or switch to it. My first impression: I'm not likely to be switching. But I'll try to keep an open mind toward it.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Your comments?

Joe

AJA Press | #TCOT
podsafe music network | ioda promonet | magnatune | airplay direct
ariel publicity | kennedy resource development | populuxe records | indie heaven
miles high productions | iris distribution | chavis records | after hours music