Thread: Using several web communities in one program

Flickr, Picasa, blogs and feeds-the Internet is full of interesting social web services. You want to use all these services as comfortably as possible, without having to manage separate programs or numerous browser extensions.

A convenient alternative is Flock, the new browser. Like Firefox, it is also a Mozilla browser and has been optimized for this purpose. Start the installation and select the 'Custom set-up' method, otherwise, Flock will automatically set itself as the default browser on your Pc. After accepting the license agreement. click 'Next' and deactivate 'Set Flock as my default browser' and 'Allow gathering of anonymous usage statistics' so that the browser does not collect any data about your surfing behavior.

When starting Flock, you can import settings and bookmarks from Firefox, for instance. Many functions and menus are similar to those in the popular free browser and hence, switching to Flock becomes easy. All familiar extensions can be installed as well.

The advantages of Flock can be tapped with the 'View /Sidebar / Accounts and Services' command. From here, you can easily arrange for access to popular online communities such as Flickr, YouTube, Picasa or various blogging tools and web mail services. When you call up any such site, you will have to log in as usual. Flock makes a note of the data and shows the account as active in its sidebar. Moreover, the browser automatically logs you off from now on.

The 'View / Sidebar / People' function goes a step further: if you have created a friends list on one of the community websites, this function enables quick access to it.

Flock also offers some more useful functions for online communities, which otherwise require separate extensions. You can quickly upload your photos to' Flickr by going to 'Tools I Photo Uploader' and compose new articles for your blog with 'Tools I Blog Editor'. The only prerequisite is that you must first allow the browser to store your access data. Finally, the 'Tools I Feeds' command gives you a bookmark collection for feeds. To access special functions, click the respective icon at the top left in the Flock toolbar.