Flock (web browser)

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Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:Main other Flock is a discontinued web browser that specialized in providing social networking and Web 2.0 facilities built into its user interface.[1] Earlier versions of Flock used the Gecko HTML rendering engine by Mozilla. Version 2.6.2, released on January 27, 2011, was the last version based on Mozilla Firefox.[2][3] Starting with version 3, Flock was based on Chromium and so used the WebKit rendering engine.[4][5] Flock was available as a free download, and supported Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and, at one time, Linux as well.

Support for Flock was discontinued in April 2011.[6][7]

History

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.[8] 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.[9]

In January 2011, Flock Inc. was acquired by Zynga.[10] The browser has been discontinued, with support ending April 26, 2011.[11]

Features

Flock 2.5 integrated social networking and media services including MySpace,[12] Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Blogger, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, etc.[13] 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:

Reception

In December 2007, Flock won the Mashable Open Web Awards for Applications and Widgets[23] and in March 2008, Flock won the South By Southwest[24] Web Award for Community.[25]

CNET gave the Mac OS X version of Flock 1.0 the title of "Best Mac Software of 2007".[26] PC World's Harry McCracken reviewed Flock as his "New Favorite Web Browser".[27]

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.[28] For the Netscape 8 userbase, AOL recommended only the Flock browser to its users.[29] 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".[30]

In May 2008, Flock won the Social Networking category of the Webby Awards.[31][32] 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 some 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."[6]

Awards

Upon exiting beta, Flock won a number of awards:[20]

See also

References

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External links

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  1. ↑ Flock Browser – Built on Mozilla's Firefox Template:Webarchive
  2. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  5. ↑ a b c Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named infoworld
  6. ↑ a b Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named OMG
  7. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Archive
  8. ↑ Flock Browser - Company Info Template:Webarchive
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ a b Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named 2.0 release
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  17. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  19. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  20. ↑ a b c d Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  21. ↑ a b c Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named best2008
  22. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  23. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  24. ↑ Web Awards Template:Webarchive
  25. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  26. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  27. ↑ I Have A New Favorite Web Browser: Flock Template:Webarchive
  28. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  29. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  30. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  31. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  32. ↑ Flock Wins a Webby Award for Best in Social Networking Template:Webarchive
  33. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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