After reading a review at TechCrunch I recently decided to give the Flock browser a try again (I had tried it way back in the early beta testing). As with any major software changes, I think you simply need to cut off usage of the alternative (in this case Firefox) for a week or two to force changes in your workflow and see how well a piece of software accomodates your needs. So, I went ahead and made Flock my default browser for the past two weeks and so far I would call it a mixed bag. There are a number of features I like and quite a few I don't, though overall I would say there is neither anything overly compelling to sway me in favor or against the browser. Part of this may have to do with the type of user the browser is targeting; let me explain.

I had signed up to be notified when the public beta of the new Flock browser was available a while back and had basically forgotten about it until an email arrived finally notifying me that the beta was available. I downloaded and installed the beta (available here) and have been toying around with the browser for a bit already. I have to say that my initial impression is very positive, even though I had been skeptical about some of the features when I first heard about them.

I read an announcement from PCWorld that Google just released a browser sync extension for Firefox. The extension allows you to share favorites across mulitiple computers, as well as restore open tabs and windows. They do, however, warn that the synchronization process may cause a slight delay when initally opening Firefox. I am testing it out anyway, because I haev always found sharing favorites across computers to be a royal PITA (and is the primary reason I keep most of my favorites at del.icio.us recently). I guess I will find out how slow it is when I get home later :)

A recent article by TechWeb does an interesting feature-to-feature comparison of the recently released IE7 Beta 2 and the current version of Firefox. The author believes that IE7 holds the advantage on interface, tab management and RSS support. He believes Firefox still holds a slim lead in security ("for now" he says in part because the security on IE7 has yet to be put to the test). He also believes Firefox holds the lead in extensions for customizability and password management. Lastly, he declares a virtual tie in web standards support (which is good to hear...though we are stuck supporting IE6 for some time anyway).

Based on his analysis, it is easy to assume that IE7 holds a slight advantage over Firefox (in its current form). However, it also doesn't seem as if their are any "must-have" features that will cause most of us who have already made the switch a compelling reason to go back, especially given what the author calls IE's "tattered reputation".

To download, go to: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bonecho/releases/2.0a1.html. The details from the site state:

Bon Echo Alpha 1 is a developer preview release of our next generation Firefox browser and it is being made available for testing purposes only. Bon Echo Alpha 1 is intended for web application developers and our testing community. Current users of Mozilla Firefox 1.x should not use Bon Echo Alpha 1.