Mark Evans

There seems to be a new round of Flock-bashing in the wake of the Performancing blog extension for Firefox. (Check out Mathew Ingram's post for a good round-up on who likes the extension.) Michael Arrington comes to Flock's defense, suggesting the fledgling browser probably has a “few massive tricks up its sleeve”. Maybe, maybe not. I think Flock has become the favourite whipping boy for many people because there was so much hype and such high expectations before its release. Of course, the Flock 0.5 beta was disappointing, which caused most of its goodwill to evaporate. The launch of the Performancing extension (talk about creating a buzz and goodwill within the blogosphere) is seen as a Flock-killer because it addresses an application that supposed to be part of Flock's special sauce. If it's so easy to replicate what Flock promises with Firefox extensions, then how does Flock establish a foothold against IE, Firefox and Opera? I suspect Flock will try to break through by offering a multi-feature browser with tight integration between applications - be they blog publishers, bookmark tools, photo sharing, etc. That said, Flock has one good crack at the bat left. If developed properly, Flock has a chance of finding a niche. If not, then it's back to the drawing board for the next Web 2.0 browser.
Update: Flocks's Chris Messina writes a lengthy response to all the Flock-bashing. He calls it “tiresome”

Technorati Tags : Why, the, Flock, Bashing?