It’s time to say farewell to Flock, the social browser that promised so much but never really caught on.
Promised so much? Like what? When Flock first appeared back in 2005, it said it would revolutionize the way people use social networks. It came with social features baked-in, making it much easier to browse sites like Flickr and stay in touch with friends via Twitter and Facebook.
Over time it added more features, like the MyWorld tab, which was set as the home page by default. It brought together social stuff and RSS feeds and other bits and bobs, pulling them all into one place for easy and quick monitoring.
Flock was a great idea for Facebook addicts, who simply had to share their every online action with Facebook friends.
It won awards and got decent reviews, but the appeal was limited. If you weren’t a social network nut, there wasn’t a compelling reason to switch to Flock. And not enough people were social network nuts.
In January this year, Flock was bought by Zynga. This week, the end was announced:
“Support for Flock browsers will be discontinued as of April 26th, 2011. We would like to thank our loyal users around the world for their support.”
If you’re still using Flock, its new owners recommend you switch to Chrome or Firefox. No time like the present.