July 23rd, 2008

Social browser Flock wants to be fashionable

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 8:58 am

Categories: Browsers, Social Networks, Social News Sites

Tags: Web Browser, Entertainment, Flock, RSS, Web Browsers, Advertising & Promotion, Internet, Marketing, Steve O'Hear

It’s actually a pretty clever strategy by Flock: Build customized versions of the company’s social browser, populated with vertically-targeted content from an array of partners — and in return expose Flock to those sites’ communities.

First up was an Eco Edition, with 10% of search revenue donated to a charity of the community’s choice. And today Flock announced the new Gloss Edition, described as “the world’s first and only fashion and entertainment browser.” The special version of the browser comes pre-populated with news, photos, videos and feeds from more than 35 fashion and entertainment blogs, websites and online communities. Content partners include Popsugar, InStyle.com, Glam.com, ThisNext.com, Ecorazzi.com, DesignerApparel.com and “other leading style and entertainment brands”. Read the rest of this entry »

May 14th, 2008

Latest Flock Beta delivers Digg, Pownce and AOL Mail support

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 8:02 am

Categories: Browsers, Digg

Tags: Digg, America Online Inc., Twitter, E-mail, Web 2.0, Online Communications, Internet, Steve O'Hear

Having launched in late 2005 amidst a tsunami of web 2.0 hype, it was always going to be difficult for social web browser Flock to keep up with expectations. But after getting through what seemed like an unhealthy period of stagnation, update by update the software is really starting to deliver. And with the rise of social networking and micro-blogging services such as Twitter, the company’s newfound execution couldn’t be more timely. Read the rest of this entry »

January 28th, 2008

Addicted to Facebook or Twitter? Time to revisit social web browser Flock

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 10:54 am

Categories: Browsers, Facebook, Social Networks, Twitter

Tags: Facebook, Web Browser, Twitter, Flock, Channel Management, Web Browsers, Marketing, Internet, Steve O'Hear

It’s been a while since wrote about Flock, the ambitious social web browser which first launched back in late 2005 amid a snowball of publicity, riding the web 2.0 hype.

A quick recap: Flock is built on top of Mozilla’s code base, and aims to embrace the ’social web’ by including functionality such as a blog editor, drag ‘n’ drop access to photos on Flickr (and later Photobucket), integration with social bookmarking service, Delicious, as well as a very elegant RSS reader.

Then after months of stagnation, and with a new CEO on-board, Flock released a major update (see my version 0.9 review) that added better discovery of services, an improved media bar, and a ’start page’ for tracking new content across supported services. While none of these new features had the ‘wow’ factor in themselves, I commended the Flock team on the tiny details designed to make powerful features more easily accessed, as well as broaden the browser’s appeal.

Ultimately, however, I was disappointed:

… in terms of interacting directly with various social web services and tracking social media, I was hoping for more. Where’s support for Twitter or Facebook alerts for example? I can’t imagine the engineering resources needed would be too much to support these two sites, or any of the social web services that have APIs.

Next week Flock will release version 1.1 to the public, adding Gmail and Yahoo Mail integration (yawn), along with Picasa support (yawn). However, with last year’s 1.0 release — overlooked here on this blog (blush) — Flock has added the Facebook and Twitter-integration that I was asking for.

Does it deliver? In a word, yes. Read the rest of this entry »

September 7th, 2007

Nescape's "digg" experiment put on hold; old-style portal returns

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 6:20 am

Categories: Browsers, Social News Sites

Tags: TechCrunch, Netscape Communications Corp., Portal, Nescape, Steve O'Hear

TechCrunch has predicted it for weeks, and despite consistent denials from AOL’s management, the new digg-style Netscape.com will be no more. Instead the site will soon be switched over to a more traditional portal, a preview of which can be seen here.

Announcing the decision on the official Netscape blog, Tom Drapeau wrote:

We received some feedback that people really do associate the Netscape brand with providing mainstream news that is editorially controlled. In fact, we specifically heard that our users do have a desire for a social news experience, but simply didn’t expect to find it on Netscape.com.

The decision to redirect the current Netscape.com site is based on that feedback and our desire to better serve our community.

I’m not too surprised to see AOL switch its prime “Netscape.com” real estate back to a more traditional portal, since it was unclear whether or not the new social news driven Netscape was ever going to be a success. From the number of votes each story gets, from the outside it never looked like Netscape.com has anything like the community numbers of Digg, the site whose model it was built on top of.

And when Jason Calacanis — the new Netscape’s instigator — left AOL, I always felt the project became vulnerable. Read the rest of this entry »

July 3rd, 2007

Flock: social browser gets significant update

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 5:24 am

Categories: Browsers

Tags: Web, Mozilla Firefox, Blog, YouTube Inc., Web Browser, Photograph, Feature, Steve O'Hear

Flock has released a preview of a major update to its social web browser. As I noted in a recent post where I did a Q&A with Flock’s CEO, Shawn Hardwin, when Flock first launched, timed perfectly to coincide with a wave of web 2.0 hype, it seemed like a fresh and bold attempt to make a web browser that truly embraced the ’social web’. The browser wasn’t a passive application designed for reading web pages, but instead could ‘write’ to the web with support for emerging social web services through built-in a blog editor, drag ‘n’ drop access and publishing of photos on Flickr (and later Photobucket), and integration with social bookmarking service, Delicious. But then things went astray.

…it would be fair to say that for many, Flock’s delivery hasn’t matched the hype (perhaps a victim of its initial PR success). Critics argue that most of Flock’s functionality can be achieved through various Firefox extensions — though I’ve yet to find an RSS plugin that comes close to Flock — and to make matters worse, Mozilla is currently prototyping its own built-in social features (see ‘Firefox exploring social networking features).

However, with version 0.9 comes a major UI redesign, and some significant new functionality, as well as a foundation built on top of the latest Firefox 2 codebase. Here are some of my favorite enhancements. Read the rest of this entry »

June 8th, 2007

Netscape's new social browser

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 9:17 am

Categories: Browsers

Tags: Mozilla Firefox, Netscape Communications Corp., Web Browser, Netscape, Steve O'Hear

Netscape has released a new version of its web browser, which sees the software include a number of social features which tie directly into the company’s recently redesigned news portal. Dubbed ‘Navigator‘ (a return to its roots name-wise), the browser is, under the hood, a re-branded version of Firefox, but with some significant bolted on functionality for seamless integration with Netscape.com.

First up, users can submit links and vote for stories on Netscape’s Digg-like social news site, right from within the browser. When browsing the web, ‘Navigator’ will check with Netscape.com to see if the page you’re on has already been submitted. If it has, you’ll be offered the vote button, as well as being able to access any comments. Alternatively, you can choose to submit the story yourself, which involves highlighting any text on the page that might make a good summary, and clicking ’share’. Another neat feature is the ability to track your friends’ activity on Netscape.com, such as what stories they’ve submitted, voted or commented on. Read the rest of this entry »

May 2nd, 2007

Q&A: Flock CEO Shawn Hardin

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 10:38 am

Categories: Browsers

Tags: Web, Web Browser, User, Steve O'Hear

Flock — the social web browser — was launched in late 2005 amid a snowball of publicity and much promise (see this early TechCrunch review). Although built on top of Mozilla's code base, Flock was pitched as a new kind of browser that fully embraced the emerging 'social web' by including functionality such as a blog editor, drag 'n' drop access to photos on Flickr (and later Photobucket), integration with social bookmarking service, Delicious, as well as a very elegant RSS reader.

However, it would be fair to say that for many, Flock's delivery hasn't matched the hype (perhaps a victim of its initial PR success). Critics argue that most of Flock's functionality can be achieved through various Firefox extensions — though I've yet to find an RSS plugin that comes close to Flock — and to make matters worse, Mozilla is currently prototyping its own built-in social features (see 'Firefox exploring social networking features').

Curious as to where Flock is at, and what we might expect in the future, I got the chance to do a brief Q&A (via email) with CEO Shawn Hardwin.

Read the rest of this entry »

April 12th, 2007

Cluztr: share your web surfing in real time

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 7:10 am

Categories: Browsers, Social Bookmarking, Social Networks

Tags:

Update: Welcome Digg readers. Feel free to subscribe here (RSS).

With the advent of the social web, we seem more willing than ever to give up aspects of our privacy in exchange for the benefits of social networking and other associated rewards such as personalization and content discovery. Emre Sokullu (over at Read/WriteWeb) has dubbed this phenomenon, The OpenYou, noting that (online) "we get more and more open each day." This has inevitably led to 'people search engines', and the ability to find out an awful lot about someone before actually (or ever) meeting with them face-to-face.

Enter Cluztr — which is currently an invite-only Beta — a social network and browser-based add-on (Firefox and Flock only) that embraces this trend towards openness by enabling users to broadcast and share their web surfing 'history' in real time.

(Similar services include me.dium.com and chatsum).

Cluztr marks where people go on the web and "linkcasts" their online location to their friends and the Cluztr community. The browser add-on also provides a sidebar that lists other people who are (or who were recently) on the same page or site.

In addition, users can chat live with others who are on the same site or page and the discussion is then archived for future visitors.

Overall, the web site and browser side-bar are well designed and fairly intuitive. However, whilst there are a number of privacy controls (for example, a user's browser history can be edited, and 'linkcasting' turned on and off), there doesn't appear to be the option of only 'linkcasting' to nominated friends. I'd be happier using such a service if my surfing was only accessible to specific people. Another suggestion, would be to give the option of starting with all sites blocked from 'linkcasting' by default. Then as a user surfs the web they can quickly create a list of sites they wish to make public.

Cuztr won't be for everybody, but it's certainly an interesting development of the OpenYou.

Readers of this blog who want to try out the service can use the invitation code: 02282726

If you are a company about to launch an exciting new social web service or product and would like me to take a look, get in touch.

April 4th, 2007

Firefox exploring social networking features

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 5:06 am

Categories: Browsers, Social Networks

Tags:

Mozilla Labs (makers of Firefox) are busy working on a new project called 'The Coop', which will "let users keep track of what their friends are doing online, and share new and interesting content with one or more of those friends." Essentially adding social networking technology to its Mozilla-based browsers.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? That's because the new project shares a similar vision to the VC funded 'Flock' browser, which, incidentally, is also built on top of Mozilla's code-base. Interestingly, some of ideas being explored by 'The Coop' appear to have been inspired by ex-Flock developer, Chris Messina's 'People in a Browser' concept.

More from Mozilla's project page:

Users will see their friends' faces, and by clicking on them will be able to get a list of that person's recently added Flickr photos, favourite YouTube videos, tagged websites, composed blog posts, updated Facebook status, etc. If a user wants to share something with a friend, they simply drag that thing onto their friend's face. When they receive something from a friend, that friend's face glows to get the user's attention.

This is exactly the kind of feature that Flock should have already built in. I'm not up-to-date with Flock's road map, but after so much promise (and hype) I've been disappointed with the progress that's been made. I'm the kind of user that would appreciate having my web browser more closely tied with social web services.

Fellow ZDNet blogger, Larry Dignan, considers what effect social networking moving to the browser will have on page views for those social networking sites which it will negate visiting.

Another interesting thread will be how this works for big social networking sites that depend on page view growth like MySpace. If I can track all my social contacts in my browser will I visit MySpace? 

On the other hand, many users aren't tied to a specific PC and so won't have the choice of running a particular browser or installing various plug-ins — instead they'll have to rely on a plain old browser and continue accessing social networking sites through the front door.