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| developer = Flock, Inc.
| developer = Flock, Inc.
| released = {{start date and age|2005|4|11}}<ref name=released/>
| released = {{start date and age|2005|4|11}}<ref name=released/>
| discontinued = yes
| discontinued = no
| operating system = [[Windows]], [[OS X]], [[Linux]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Flock Global Page|url=http://flock.softpedia.com/|work=[[Softpedia]]|publisher=SoftNews|accessdate=15 December 2013}}</ref>
| operating system = [[Windows]], [[OS X]], [[Linux]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Flock Global Page|url=http://flock.softpedia.com/|work=[[Softpedia]]|publisher=SoftNews|accessdate=15 December 2013}}</ref>
| language = Catalan, Chinese (both Traditional and Simplified), English (US, Australian, British, Canadian), Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Italian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal + African Portuguese Speaking Countries and Brazil), Russian, Slovak, Spanish (Latin American and Spain)
| language = Catalan, Chinese (both Traditional and Simplified), English (US, Australian, British, Canadian), Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Italian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal + African Portuguese Speaking Countries and Brazil), Russian, Slovak, Spanish (Latin American and Spain)
| genre = [[Web browser]]<br/>[[Feed reader]]
| genre = [[Web browser]]<br/>[[Feed reader]]
| status = Discontinued in April 2011<ref name="Flockweb"/>
| status = Active <ref name="Flockweb"/>
| license = [[Freeware]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Flock (Discontinued) 3.5.3.4641 / 2.6.1|url=http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Browsers/Flock-for-Windows.shtml|work=[[Softpedia]]|publisher=SoftNews|accessdate=15 December 2013}}</ref>
| license = [[Freeware]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Flock (Discontinued) 3.5.3.4641 / 2.6.1|url=http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Browsers/Flock-for-Windows.shtml|work=[[Softpedia]]|publisher=SoftNews|accessdate=15 December 2013}}</ref>
| website = {{URL|flock.com}}
| website = {{URL|flock.com}}

Revision as of 17:17, 22 July 2014

Flock
Developer(s)Flock, Inc.
Initial releaseApril 11, 2005; 19 years ago (2005-04-11)[1]
Preview releasenone (n/a) [±]
Operating systemWindows, OS X, Linux[2]
Available inCatalan, Chinese (both Traditional and Simplified), English (US, Australian, British, Canadian), Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Italian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal + African Portuguese Speaking Countries and Brazil), Russian, Slovak, Spanish (Latin American and Spain)
TypeWeb browser
Feed reader
LicenseFreeware[3]
Websiteflock.com

Flock was a web browser that specialized in providing social networking and Web 2.0 facilities built into its user interface.[5] Earlier versions of Flock used the Gecko HTML rendering engine by Mozilla. Version 2.6.2, released in July 2010, was the last version based on Mozilla Firefox.[6][7] Starting with version 3, Flock was based on Chromium and so used the WebKit rendering engine.[8][9] 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. A year later in April 2012 the old Flock website was back and carried a vague indication that the project might be resurrected, inviting readers to add themselves to a mailing list to receive future news.[10][11][12] As of April 2013 the site redirected to another business, indicating that the resurrection of the web browser did not occur.

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.[13] 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.[14]

In January 2011, Flock Inc. was acquired by Zynga.[15] The browser has been discontinued, with support ending April 26, 2011.[16]

Features

Flock 2.5 integrated social networking and media services including MySpace,[17] Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Blogger, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, etc.[18] When logging into any of the supported social services, Flock can track updates from friends: profiles, uploaded photos, and more. Flock's latest 2.5 version 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[28] and in March 2008, Flock won the South By Southwest[29] Web Award for Community.[30]

CNET gave the Mac OS X version of Flock 1.0 the title of "Best Mac Software of 2007".[31] PC World's Harry McCracken reviewed Flock as his "New Favorite Web Browser".[32]

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.[33] For the Netscape 8 userbase, AOL recommended only the Flock browser to its users.[34] In March 2008, Flock announced that they had seen "nearly 3 million downloads" and a 135% percent 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".[35]

In May 2008, Flock won the Social Networking category of the Webby Awards.[36][37] 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 the 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."[10]

Awards

Upon exiting beta, Flock won a number of awards:[25]

  • "Eddy Winner": Flock 2.0 24th Annual Macworld Editors' Choice Awards [38]

See also

References

  1. ^ Festa, Paul (April 11, 2005). "Start-up wants to improve on Firefox". CNET. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
  2. ^ "Flock Global Page". Softpedia. SoftNews. Retrieved December 15, 2013.
  3. ^ "Flock (Discontinued) 3.5.3.4641 / 2.6.1". Softpedia. SoftNews. Retrieved December 15, 2013.
  4. ^ Flock website Retrieved April 11, 2011
  5. ^ Flock Browser – Built on Mozilla's Firefox[dead link]
  6. ^ "Flock 2.6.2 Release Notes". Flock. Retrieved December 9, 2010.
  7. ^ "Powered by Mozilla". Flock. Retrieved December 9, 2010.
  8. ^ Iedtke, Michael (June 16, 2010). "Flock Browser Gets Faster, Friendlier With Upgrade". ABC. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
  9. ^ a b c Wayner, Peter (October 19, 2010). "Top 10 specialty Web browsers you may have missed". InfoWorld. p. 2. Retrieved October 28, 2010.
  10. ^ a b Sneddon, Joey (April 2011). "End of the line for Flock social browser". OMG Ubuntu. Retrieved April 15, 2011.
  11. ^ Flock Inc (April 15, 2012). "Support for Flock browsers has been discontinued". Archived from the original on April 29, 2011. Retrieved April 10, 2012.
  12. ^ Flock.com (undated). "Flock". Retrieved April 26, 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ Flock Browser - Company Info[dead link]
  14. ^ "Flock draws $15 million for social browsing". CNET. Retrieved August 6, 2012.
  15. ^ Wasserman, Todd (January 7, 2011). "Zynga Buys Social Web Browser Flock". Mashable. Retrieved August 6, 2012.
  16. ^ Van Grove, Jennifer (April 12, 2011). "Flock Shutters Social Web Browser". Mashable.
  17. ^ a b Official release announcement on Shawn Harding's blog[dead link]
  18. ^ "Activate Services and Unite Your Social Networks in the People Sidebar". User guides. Flock. Retrieved October 22, 2008.
  19. ^ "Share Pictures, Text, Audio and Video". User guides. Flock. Retrieved October 22, 2008.
  20. ^ "View and Share Media through the Media Bar". User guides. Flock. Retrieved October 22, 2008.
  21. ^ "Track Feeds". User guides. Flock. Retrieved October 22, 2008.
  22. ^ "Activate and Manage Blogs". User guides. Flock. Retrieved October 22, 2008.
  23. ^ "Review: Strong, innovative Web browsers emerge". Associated Press. Retrieved June 26, 2008.[dead link]
  24. ^ "Get or Build Add-ons for Flock". User guides. Flock. Retrieved October 22, 2008.
  25. ^ a b c d "Flock's press".
  26. ^ a b c "Flock Named As One of PC World's "100 Best Products of 2008"". Retrieved June 17, 2008.
  27. ^ "The 100 Best Products of 2008". PC World. Retrieved June 17, 2008.
  28. ^ December 21, 2007 by Adam Hirsch 86 (December 21, 2007). "Open Web Awards Winners". Mashable.com. Retrieved May 21, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  29. ^ Web Awards
  30. ^ McCarthy, Caroline (March 11, 2008). "Oh wait! SXSWi had Web Awards, too". News.com. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
  31. ^ Parker, Jason (December 20, 2007). "Best Mac Software of 2007". Download.com. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
  32. ^ I Have A New Favorite Web Browser: Flock
  33. ^ "Netscape 9 Users: Time to Flock or Firefox". Blog.netscape.com. February 20, 2008. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
  34. ^ "Netscape 8 Update Forthcoming: You Can Flock Too!". Blog.netscape.com. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
  35. ^ "Flock Browser Use Growing Dramatically". Reuters.com. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
  36. ^ "2008 Webby Award Winners". Webbyawards.com. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
  37. ^ Flock Wins a Webby Award for Best in Social Networking[dead link]
  38. ^ Michaels, Philip. "Eddy Winner: Flock 2.0". Macworld.com. Retrieved May 21, 2012.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flock_(web_browser)&oldid=618007883"