Comments on: Seeing if Flock has wings

By: Ed Warkentin

Ed Warkentin — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 12:30:20 +0000

I love the new features, but I am having trouble changing from the browser I am used to (Safari). I’m a keyboard-shortcut guy, and some of those basic commands are drastically different.
The new features Steve mentions are exciting and a real draw, but I like to be able to:
1) Hit the space bar to go down one page.
2) Hit Shift-space bar to go up one page.
3) Hit Shift-Apple-left/right arrow to go to the adjacent tab.

Until I either discover how Flock does this (without using only the scroll bar arrows), or they build in the feature, I’m going to have to be doing a lot more pointing and clicking than I’m used to.

I tried blogging with the integrated Flock features, but when I wanted to make hyperlinks, I had to manually use HTML, and when I use the non-browser-specific method, I was able to use the WSYWIG buttons to assist in making this part of blogging much quicker. Even if you’re an accomplished HTML-er, it just takes time!
About those buttons, though, Safari doesn’t have them (which makes that feature somewhat browser-specific, I suppose), which is a bummer. Maybe that will cause me to use it more and push me “over the top”.

By: Steve Dembo

Steve Dembo — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 14:38:30 +0000

I have, and it worked pretty well, but I did have some problems getting it going at first. It just kept timing out for some reason. Even when it did work, something about it didn’t quite feel natural to me. Maybe it was splitting the browser into two horizontal panes…

With Flock, your block posts come up in a pop up window, essentially the same way the Wordpress or Typepad Bookmarklet work. However, I’ve also had problems with Wordpress’s bookmarklet quick post, mostly with the way it lays out in Firefox. Gets scrunched for some reason. So for now I’m going to keep using Flock’s interface and see how it I like it over time.

In the release notes on the blog, the Flock folks do say that if you like Firefox and have installed 10-15 plugins so that it’s set up exactly the way you like it, then you might not be into Flock. On the other hand, if you want to just have all those features in one big package, then it might be worth looking into.

By: Traci

Traci — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 12:25:47 +0000

I’m intrigued by your review of Flock. But have you used the Performancing add-on in Firefox for blogging? I just discovered it and have been pretty impressed.

By: Gerald

Gerald — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 03:01:16 +0000

Bloglines is being investigated for a later release it is.
You can do number two already.

By: Brian Mull

Brian Mull — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 22:09:23 +0000

Two things.

1) I would like to see the news reader sync w/ Bloglines.

2) I would like the option of being able to save a favorite to del.icio.us, or just as a bookmark on my own computer, or both.

By: Stephen Rahn

Stephen Rahn — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 20:29:22 +0000

Now I remember one thing. You can’t have multiple home pages. In Firefox I have 9 different home pages that load when I launch it.

By: Stephen Rahn

Stephen Rahn — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 20:14:56 +0000

I used Flock back in October for a short time, and I remember liking it. I don’t really remember why I stopped using it, but I’m going to download the new version.