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Author Topic: Flock Features Series : #1 - RSS  (Read 5047 times)

Redhat

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Flock Features Series : #1 - RSS
« on: May 04, 2006, 11:33 PM »
This post will be the first in a series, reviewing the upcoming release of the Flock browser, built on Mozilla Firefox. This section looks at one of the heavily enhanced features in the "Cardinal" beta release which is scheduled for release later this month (May).

The Basics

Flock is loved by some, hated by others. But I would like to take the middle ground in these reviews, and give honest opinions on this so called "social browser".

RSS is, as most of you know, a way to syndicate information across the internet. This portion will focus on the RSS reading capabilities of Flock, and bring to light the work that has gone into them.

The all important first screenshot

flock1.png

On the left you have a tree-like area where you have your feed titles, which you can catagorise into folders. Clicking on Front Page shows you an overview of the RSS items ready to view in all the folders you have created.

Clicking a specific feed will show you what is shown on the right hand side - the main reading pane. This opens in a new tab, and to me seems very well laid out, easy on the eye - and all in all - presentable.

As expected, you can mark all as read, or individual postings as read. You can also filter the post shown under different criteria.

You can collapse certain days to clean up the interface slightly - which is nice. The thing I can't find is searching of the posts! (But this may be available in the full Cardinal release, I am not sure).

One of the cool features of the RSS reader in Flock, is that when there are new posts on your feeds, the icon in the main navigation bar lights up orange - alerting you to this. I find this very handy while browsing, and so you do not have to keep manually updating the feeds.

Well, with all things considered - it is quite basic. But with this kind of thing, I think basic is good. An RSS reader in a browser shouldn't have everything thrown in, in my opinion.

Another thing missing is enclosure support - at least I think.

Stay tuned for more mini-reviews on Flock, which is currently my main browser on the Windows laptop I own :)

mouser

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Re: Flock Features Series : #1 - RSS
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2006, 11:36 PM »
nice!
(and worth a few credits ;))