philcrissman.com

The unknown is considerably more interesting than the known. I think the practice of having semi-closed beta periods for applications serves not only as an extended period of testing, but also as a way to generate some buzz and anticipation on the part of those who are not yet in the beta group.

I was as interested as anyone when Flock was announced a couple years ago (wow… time flies.) I signed up for the beta. I checked the site regularly for more information. I probably blogged about the new browser, sight unseen. When I finally received a beta invite, I was decidedly underwhelmed; Flock was basically Firefox with a few custom-made extensions built in.

That being said, it’s two years later, Flock is still around, and I figured I’d give its latest version another chance.

What I love:

• Automatic Import of Bookmarks. Great usability. Everything I want to have bookmarked came right over.
• It’s Firefox. Yes, it’s Flock, but it’s built on Firefox, and in some ways that’s very nice; all the same keyboard shortcuts, most extensions work; I’d qualify that as a good thing.

What I hate:

• The UI. Someone obviously spent a lot of time on it, and the graphics are very well done, but it looks like IE7 to me (albeit not as obnoxiously glossy), and I’ve never liked that UI either (to put it mildly — okay, I hate it fervently). Despite this being just about looks, the UI is how you use an application, and it does matter what it looks like. Some people may prefer the Flock theme, but for those who don’t, the problem is exacerbated by Flock’s lack of any other themes; they promise that themes will work “later in 2007″. Running out of time on that one.
• Hate’s a strong word. I can’t find anything else to hate just yet.

Other thoughts:

• The “My World” (about:myworld) page is an interesting idea, and sounds like a winner, but… It doesn’t seem necessary to integrate it into the browser. Aren’t there a half-dozen or more websites I can use to integrate this sort of information? The advantage to a website is that, once I’ve aggregated the services I use, I can share them (like FriendFeed — it’s not perfect, but a good example of this). about:myworld can never do that… I honestly don’t see the point.
• Many of the other integrated features — the blog editor, for example — just don’t seem like features at all. Doesn’t a bookmark to my Wordpress admin page, and the password memorized in the password manager, accomplish the same thing?

I guess that’s enough with the 2-point bullet lists. What I’m seeing is more or less what I saw two years ago; a browser with a UI that I dislike that doesn’t give me any more “web 2.0″ functionality than Firefox once I’ve set it up with my favorite bookmarks and add-ons. Since Flock requires its own set up of all these various features, the fact that many of them are integrated really doesn’t save me any time. It just feels like I’m setting up Firefox over again, but clunkier and less conveniently.

I don’t mean to give a scathing review; other than the UI, there’s nothing I really hate. But there’s also nothing that makes me want to keep using it.