OnlineSid

I just tried this new web browser on the block called ‘Flock‘ - the social web browser. To me, it looks and smells too much like Mozilla Firefox with custom theme and collection of plugins that integrate popular services like GMail, Facebook, Youtube, Yahoo, Flickr, etc.

According to Wikipedia, Flock(web browser) has received about $30M funding. I was so dumbfounded-jaw-droped-shocked at first. I mean it is (at least from my brief observation) just taking Mozilla Firefox + theme + plugins. But then I realised, this is about collective advertising of the biggest websites on the planet, hence the amount of money reflects the brands, not the technology.

I think it is very clever how the people at Flock uses the best browser to build their platform on. I can definetely see other big companies follow suit and pay good amount of money to get their services featured and tightly integrated into Flock.

Would I use it? Yes, I think I would, or at least try it. I use many of the services already integrated into Flock web browser, so I think I’ll try it to see if it will make my online experience better.

I received the official announcement email today that Firefox did set the Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours.

a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours … 8,002,530 downloads.

The most spectacular software release in history. Congratulation Firefox!

I have never seen any software release more spectacular than this one. Firefox 3 is setting the Guinness World of the records for the most downloaded software in a day!

When I started using the Internet, I used Netscape 3 then Netscape 4 (Communicator). But then Netscape went down hill. There was no Netscape 5, Netscape 6 was bloated and slow, and then Netscape died (well, actually there was Netscape 7 and may be 8, but I think they are more of Mozilla than Netscape). In the mean time, IE was gaining momentum. Some, like Joel, blame it on the decision to rewrite Netscape.

From the ashes of Netscape, Mozilla was born, and then Mozilla was forked (or re-packaged/re-branded?) and Firefox came into existance. Firefox sounded hot and foxy, so I gave it a go and I never looked back since then. It’s the best browser.

Firefox is very customable and the amount of control it gives to its users is incredible. There is probably a Firefox plugin for just about anything! Yes, anything! It finds you interesting websites, reminds you stuffs, blocks spams, colours tabs, syncs bookmarks, plays mp3, connects to IRC, even changes your babies diapers (it really could, if only it has hands).

Over the years I have tried many firefox plugins/add-ons, here are my all time favourite:

1. My all time number one favourite as a web developer has got to be … Firebug! It is to me like Olive tree to the people of Athens. Firebug allows you to monitor and debug almost all requests, responses, and javascript codes of a website. All that in a very user-friendly intuitive interface. It really is the ultimate web debugger.
2. My next all time favourite firefox plugin is Greasemonkey. Although I rarely use it these days, I did wrote some greasy monkey scripts (some called these scripts userscripts). It basically allows you to write javascript codes that can change the way a website works. So, you want to see the lyrics of music videos you watch on Youtube? Download Youtube videos? No problem, get a greased monkey to do the donkey work.
3. Next is Stumbleupon. It really is fun to stumble random interesting websites when I’m bored.

Every Eee PC owners like myself would always appreciate anything that helps optimize screen usage. Eee PC’s screen is small, so browsing some sites could be challenging since most websites are built for big screens these days.

Luckily there’s Firefox theme called Littlefox that makes more room for viewing website by making everything else smaller (toolbar, tab, etc). This is so far the best Firefox theme for Eee PC!

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