I rarely respond to online advertising, as they seem to target singles or mortgage owners looking to refinance.
But two weeks ago I saw an ad promoting the new-ish Flock browser. “I’ve heard of that,” I thought to myself, and downloaded it on a whim. An hour later, I was still playing.
The aptly monikered ‘social browser’ is horribly addictive. View all your blog feeds in a customizable sidebar while you browse. Keep your friends’ photostreams in a slick, browseable view at the top of your page. Upload photos to flickr directly from the browser (which is by far my favorite feature); post to your blog; update facebook; etc, etc, etc.
If your virtual life isn’t as robust as your tangible one, you might not see the point in switching from, say, Firefox (the two appear to be built on the same platform). Still, it’s fun to see such a purposeful approach to browsing, one that plays up the web’s ability to keep us connected.