Flock browser which became popular for being Facebook centric has closed down. If you visit their official website you are greeted with the message that from 26th April 2011, onwards Flock will not support the browser anymore.
This means no more updates will be released and this potentially makes it dangerous from a security point of view to use Flock browser. It also wants people to move on to either Firefox or Chrome. Well this was probably going to happen as Flock browser, despite of getting some attention hardly made an impact from a browser share perspective.
What killed off Flock browser?
Three or four years ago when Internet Explorer held almost complete domination over the browser markets, smaller browser projects could survive in particular niche areas. Now with Firefox and Chrome actively gaining users with IE’s numbers dipping we have 5 browsers which have some sort of market share when it comes to browsers.
With IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari around, I think it will be difficult for newer browsers to significantly find enough users to survive.
Is RockMelt browser next?
This is a tricky one. I personally like using RockMelt from time to time, but that is because I like Chrome. RockMelt is built on Chrome and I feel it is like Chrome with fancy add-ons. I may be wrong but I do feel in the browser segment, RockMelt will probably not find enough users to keep it afloat.
The real answer to the demise of Flock browser lies to this simple question: You have probably heard of Flock browser, but when was the last time you used it? Do drop in your comments.
Credit: Flock Browser
7 Comments
I have used both Flock and Rockmelt and the latter is my default browser ever since I got the beta invite in the first week of its release.
I admit it looks like chrome with fancy add-on but believe me its lot more than that, if it was just an add-on why was it not developed as one at an earlier date.
Rockmelt is doing a great job and people who are in love with chrome must give it a shot.
FYI Flock was a disaster and Rockmelt is an innovation
I personally use RockMelt a lot, but I am not sure how a browser can survive if it is mainly reliant on just one website ie:Facebook.
rockmelt is great browser. i like personally a lot. i think it will get a large user base.
I also use Rockmelt, but I cannot see it as much useful if it is only going to be useful for Twitter and Facebook users.
I’m using Flock along with Firefox and Chrome. Sad to hear that its going to be deprecated. 🙁
Too bad about Flock closing down, but you might want to start using RockMelt as an alternative to Flock.