Flock, the New Browser on the Block

^tamago^ writes to tell us BusinessWeek Online is reporting that a new browser is stepping into the arena. This new competitor, Flock, hopes to change the face of web browsing by turning their's into the swiss army knife of browsers. From the article: "Flock's browser is built specifically for a new, emerging generation of Web users, one that isn't satisfied passively browsing media online. Flock hopes to turn the browser into a dashboard for collaborating, blogging, sharing photos, reveling in a raft of other group activities that have recently caught fire online"

And I suppose everyone using it

[Anonymous Coward]

....Will be sheep?

Hope they fix the font size in their browser

[amrust]

Because the text on that page is GIGANTIC.

this browser will change everything

[steak]

i hear it has "push" technology

I say...

[rock217]

Decrem expects to make money from running Google ads, as well as getting so-called affiliate fees for referring users to commercial sites such as Amazon.com

feck flock

This is great!

[anandamide]

Instead of telling someone to visit a website, I can tell them to "Flock This!"

Another Browser....

[donnacha]

... Flock off!!

And I ran...

[Anonymous Coward]

I ran so far away.

Re:...hmmmm

[rofl copter]

haha, yeah. i hope the browser doesnt havehuge standard fonts like that.

Finally!

[JohnPerkins]

A browser that embraces bloat!

I wonder what MBA thought this one up.

[mumblestheclown]

I what proactive MBA envisioned the synergies that would allow flock to become a knowledge portal center of excellence for podcasting core competencies of leveraging mindshare and paradigm shifts to achieve superlinear ROI.

Covering the bases

[saddino]

Expect Flock to crash and, from time to time, lose all your data.

OK, so apparently it's at least as stable as IE.

umm, entirely new idea of thinking

[skeletor935]

Flock also keeps a history of every Web page a user visits, so they can be found easily later.

I've seen this feature before, but I can't recall where...

Re:No Invite

[RangerRick98]

they can't develop a web page worth a crud...

They probably spent all of their website design budget on this slashvertisement. :)

Re:A little thin on details.

[tehshen]

Oh and hey, wanna join the flock? We're hiring! So guess what? Send us your resume! ...Meet the Flockers?

Re:Yuck

[aichpvee]

SPOILER: flock.com kills eyes!

Re:Invalid markup, to boot.

[CableModemSniper]

Uh oh...

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.apple .com/macosx/features/safari/ [w3.org]

Apparently there is no attribute "HEGIHT".

Re:Yuck

[LennyDotCom]

Well, all I can say is that if the web site is any indicator of the design talents of its creators

I accually like the site design. It's a nice change of pace from most PR websites that try to be so creative you caqn't find any useful info or are so full of flash that you can't stand the waite or figureout how to find the info. Thier site loads fast and you can find what you a looking for very easy.

Article summary

[joe_bruin]

FLOCK(2)            Linux Programmer's Manual            FLOCK(2)

NAME
       flock - apply or remove an advisory lock on an open file
SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/file.h>
       int flock(int fd, int operation)
DESCRIPTION
       Apply  or  remove  an  advisory lock on an open file.  The
       file is specified  by  fd.   Valid  operations  are  given
       below:
              LOCK_SH   Shared  lock.   More than one process may
                        hold a shared lock for a given file at  a
                        given time.

              LOCK_EX   Exclusive  lock.   Only  one  process may
                        hold an exclusive lock for a  given  file
                        at a given time.

              LOCK_UN   Unlock.

              LOCK_NB   Don't  block when locking.  May be speci&#173;
                        fied (by or'ing) along with  one  of  the
                        other operations.

       A  single file may not simultaneously have both shared and
       exclusive locks.

       A file is locked (i.e., the inode), not the file  descrip&#173;
       tor.   So,  dup(2)  and  fork(2)  do  not  create multiple
       instances of a lock.

RETURN VALUE
       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1  is  returned,
       and errno is set appropriately.
ERRORS
       EWOULDBLOCK
              The  file  is  locked  and  the  LOCK_NB  flag  was
              selected.
CONFORMING TO
       4.4BSD (the flock(2) call first appeared in 4.2BSD).
NOTES
       flock(2) does not  lock  files  over  NFS.   Use  fcntl(2)
       instead:  that  does  work  over NFS, given a sufficiently
       recent version of Linux and a server which supports  lock&#173;
       ing.

       flock(2)  and fcntl(2) locks have different semantics with
       respect to forked processes and dup(2).
SEE ALSO
       open(2), close(2), dup(2), execve(2),  fcntl(2),  fork(2),
       lockf(3)

       There    are   also   locks.txt   and   mandatory.txt   in
       /usr/src/linux/Documentation.

Linux                       1998-12-11                   FLOCK(2)

Re:I wonder what MBA thought this one up.

[Da_Biz]

Your choice of words is perfect: I was getting a dot-Bomb flashback from reading the article summary.

I'd love to chat more, but I'm too busy monetizing my core capabilities using Mark-to-Market accounting techniques and leveraging my strategic partnerships with nano-wireless-application-provider-social networking-viral marketing startups.

Re:Yuck

[Anonymous Coward]

No kidding. God, we can't /. this thing fast enough. Somebody post this on Fark too.

"their's"

[adavies42]

Impressive, that one's quite rare.

Re:Based off of Konqueror?

[advid]

They're actually pirating FireFox [flock.com].

In all seriousness, though, it's a bunch of FireFox developers who're whacking FireFox into a new form.

Re:And I suppose everyone using it

[HTH NE1]

And I suppose everyone using it... Will be sheep?

Flock ewe!

Re:Article summary

[game kid]

I tried to install this newfangled Flock on Linux, but...

[root@localhost] # make install
make: *waves index finger*
i KNOW you didn't try to overwrite the REAL flock
with that browser and shit.
See >man flock< and burn in hell.
*throws root's clothes out window*
Stop.
[root@localhost] #

My Linux seems a bit protective of its territory nowadays...

Fun with form input

[Just Some Guy]

I'm not sure I agree. The directions for subscribing "[e-mail]" to their mailing list a few times were clear enough.

Re:And I suppose everyone using it

[BandwidthHog]

Baaaaaaaaaaaad.

Re:Screams? More like burning letters 100' tall.

[kfg]

They ARE FireFox extensions.

Because Flock is FireFox forked by a Firefox developer with some sort of hidden marketing agenda.

He took FireFox, turned it into a squid, dressed it up in spangles and glued tits to it.

Careful boys, you just might get your fingers burned if you try to fondle these puppies.

KFG

They lost me at...

[The Ultimate Fartkno]

..."We started Flock to build tools that empower people."

I don't want my browser to "empower" me, I want it to quickly and efficiently let me waste time between classes while reading about computers and things that explode. The thought of an "empowered" browser (and my experiences at a local women's college) brings up some very disturbing mental images.

Flock: You seem to be searching for pornography, which subjugates women and furthers the phallusocracy that keeps undeserving white men in power. Instead, I've directed your search towards some Andrea Dworkin you might want to peruse.

Flock: Your search for 'Black Norwegian Metal' returned 217,000 hits. But might I suggest some Natalie Merchant, Bikini Kill, Ani DiFranco, or other womyn-friendly artists?

Flock: I notice that your Slashdot history shows a disturbing number of posts that suggest discrimination towards homosexuals, people of African descent, and extraplanetary immigrants. Until you show a pattern of clicking and browsing of sites that further the cause of disenfranchised peoples of color or alternate sexuality, I will encrypt your "special" folder that you think I don't know about.

And I bet it smells like patchouli, too.

Re:Is it just me?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's just you. You must need a new browser, dude.

Oh, god, please, no...

[argent]

For example, we can envision a world where you can watch people writing blog posts as they write them.

And for real thrills, you can watch paint dry. ... "he's started a new paragraph..." ... "woot, is he talking about Microsoft yet?" ... "nah, it's something about his kid." ... "screw this, I'm gonna see what Dvorak's up to."

Re:Yuck

[aussie_a]

That's why I only install stuff like this at school.

Re:I'm blind!

[Mehtuus]

That was the first time a website actually startled me.

No joke. What the flock were they thinking when they made that flocking website. Maybe you have to use their flocking browser just to see their site correctly, with the flocking "hegiht" attributes and all.

flock.com till it kills ya, or blinds you anyways...

Re:No Invite

[Hosiah]

Now all they get is \. ridicule

Wow! They advertized on "Backslashdot.com" too?