Yes, the browser wars are still alive and well. Like most other software wars, it is Microsoft vs. the world. But what does the world have to offer us today?
I remember the first browser I ever used. I had an dial-up account with CompuServe and used the NSCA Mosaic browser to view the web. I didn’t go onto the web much because I only paid for a few hours a month.
Not long after, I “graduated” to a “real” ISP. At that time, Netscape 3.0 was the dominant browser on the market. But Microsoft was set to change all that, and change it they did. I believe the statistic I heard was that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer commanded a powerful 90% market share in 2005, of which I was a part of.
Why did I use IE? The reason was simple. They were better than their competition at the time. I had tried Opera a few times, but didn’t like the way it worked. Netscape’s later browsers just failed to meet expectations. Mozilla just seemed too much like Netscape to be of use to me, and Firefox (beta) was still relatively unknown to me.
As a web designer, I didn’t care much for IE, and still don’t. It has too many quirks, making up its own standards for displaying web pages. Unfortunately, as a designer, I had to design with those quirks in mind.
Last year I re-discovered Firefox version 1.0. It was almost like a dream come true. It was a standards-compliant browser with tabs and the ability to extend the browser and add themes. What I wrote off while it was in beta became my new browser of choice, and has been for about a year now (using version 1.5 now).
Now there is a new kid on the block. Flock Beta 1. It is based on Firefox 1.5, but focused on Web 2.0 technology. That means it supports shared bookmarks, blogging, photos, and the like. I still am not certain of everything, as I’ve never been much into any of the above, and have only now starting hearing about Web 2.0. I have, though, tried many times (unsuccessfully) to write blogs. I’m wondering if Flock might help in that way.
Why would Flock help? Well, it has several features to allow easy blogging from whatever page I’m on, without having to open a separate tab or browser to access my blog site. Our personal family website is powered by WordPress and Flock integrates with WordPress seamlessly. At least I’m hoping it is seamless, as this blog is being written using Flock’s own blogging tool.
I downloaded and installed earlier this week, and have been using it as my primary browser for a couple days now, enough to get a basic idea of some of its strengths and apparent weaknesses.
Strengths: Like Firefox, it is standards-compliant. It functions almost identically to a version of Firefox with Extensions added. Although it goes beyond the extensions with the way it seamlessly integrates bookmarks and blogging. I could supposedly add Firefox extensions and themes as well, but there is no guarantee if they will work. So far, though, I haven’t seen a need to add any extensions to Flock.
Weaknesses: Their favorites. Touted as a strength, it actually has several drawbacks. It is very difficult to manage the favorites. I like to use a Favorites toolbar that includes folders for navigating to favorite sections, which is what I do in Firefox. That doesn’t appear to be a possibility with the favorites. It isn’t a major issue, just something I’d have to get used to. There are other issues with favorites as well. Creating of categories is not easy, and when I try to create a category, it adds my “Manage Favorites” tab into my favorites every time, and I have to delete it. It would be nice if, while editing my favorites, I could just right-click to get a menu that would allow me to add a new category. The most annoying problem that I have with the favorites is the lack of the ability to sort my favorites alphabetically. I don’t have a lot of favorites at the moment, but as it gets larger, having the ability to sort them–either by right-clicking and sorting by name or by dragging/dropping to a new location–instead of having to search randomly.
Aside from the favorites, I also have an issue with the the RSS Feeds. I love the one page easy access to the RSS Feeds, but there doesn’t appear to be a way to reload all the RSS Feeds at one time. I understand it works on a timer, but there are times that I want to bypass the timer and refresh all the feeds without having to go into each feed one-by-one and refresing them that way.
Final drawback that I can see at the moment has to do with the blog box for writing the blog. Where is the feature for adding tags/categories to it? In addition, the box is always set to “Stay on Top” so I have to minimize it to see Flock behind it. I’ve had to do that a couple times while writing this blog, and it has been a minor annoyance.
Now, you might assume, after reading this and seeing my list that I don’t like Flock. Well, I have to say that I like the concept and realize it is only a beta product right now. I’m sure they are going to address some of these issues because I doubt I’m the only one mentioning them. I do like Flock, and will continue using it. I won’t give up Firefox or IE (reluctantly). Firefox is my browser that will have several web design specific extensions installed, and IE I use for work, web design purposes, and those annoying sites that refuse to work in anything but IE. For general browsing, though, I think Flock may be my new browser. Who knows, it might even allow me to become more familiar and connected in the new Web 2.0 paradigm.
Edit. After clicking on the Publish button I found the categories and tags, as well as the ability to replace existing posts. Not bad. It would be nice, though, if categories could be added on that screen as well.
Blogged with Flock
