Flock, the ‘social’ web browser
Mac Tip #253/26-July-2006

The recent series of Tips introduced you to using the social bookmarking service called Del.icio.us. In order to use Del.icio.us you need to log in.

Other web-based services requiring logins are also becoming popular: GMail, Google Calendar, Flickr, blogging services, and others. In particular, blogging is becoming very popular, and people want to take some text they’ve found on a web page and write about it on their blog, perhaps including photos from Flickr.

This modern, interactive way of using the Web has brought about a new breed of web browser, incorporating specific features to make blogging, bookmark and photo sharing easier. One of the first such web browsers is Flock.

It’s free, it’s sleek and it’s a browser I’m using a lot these days. I’ll write more about it in future tips, but I just want to continue the Del.icio.us theme for a little longer.

Provided your computer meets the requirement, download and install Flock (about 18Mb) and when you start it up for the first time it should ask you about services you can use, such as Del.icio.us. If it doesn’t then go to the Flock menu and call up the Accounts and Services… item. Click on the Favorites Sharing button in the window that appears and enter your username and password for Del.icio.us. When you’ve finished selecting options for sharing favourites you should be able to do save new favourites and visit saved favourites.

Visit a page you would like to add to your favourites, such as KnowIT.

With that page on screen click the Star button in the Toolbar, at the left end of the Address Bar. In the dialog box that appears enter details just as you would for Del.icio.us, then click the OK button. You have now added that page to your list of Del.icio.us bookmarks.

To visit a page you have already bookmarked choose it from the Favorites > Recent Favorites menu. If the bookmark you want is too old to appear in that menu then either choose Favorites > Manage Your Favorites or Favorites > View Favorites on The Web to access it.