Being a web developer I am forced to download every available browser possible in order to make sure all my sites are working properly. This is usually not a good thing, there’s almost nothing worse than finding out some of your coding doesn’t work properly in a browser you never want to use anyways. However, after downloading Flock I almost choked on my own saliva out of surprise. After regaining my composure I quickly set this new amazing piece of software as my default browser, here’s why:

1. Social Networking
Flock is exactly what it has labeled itself as: The Social Networking Browser. There are two unique toolbars to this browser. The first, located vertically along the right side allows the user to log into several different social networking sites and control them via the toolbar. These sites include, but are not limited to, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Delicious, Digg and much much more. What does this mean? Well now you can instantly see your friends status updates, save your delicious bookmarks, etc etc without ever visiting the corresponding websites. It brings social networking to the next level.

2. Photostreams
The second nifty toolbar unique to Flock is the media stream located horizontally along the top of the browser. Like the sidebar, this one can be easily opened and closed so it is only available when you want it to be. The media bar allows you to instantly subscribe to your friends photostreams from multiple sources such as Flickr, Facebook, Photobucket, MySpace and much more. Now you can instantly see updated photos from all your favorite galleries without ever having to navigate to another website. Not only that, but you can hover the image for a larger view with comments, or click the image to go directly to the URL.

3. Feeds
Flock has made it even easier to subscribe to your favorite feeds, as if it was not easy enough. Their nifty feed section allows you to subscribe, categorize and view all the feeds you want. Staying updated has never been so much fun.

4. Photo’s
Once you are logged into your Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, Myspace, Facebook, etc accounts, You can open the built in photo uploader and literally drag and drop your photos to the designated window. Once you have them selected Flock allows you to select which social network you would like to upload your photos to.

5. Sharing
While your out browsing your favorite sites, if you stumble upon something great that must be shared with your friends there is no reason to wait with Flock. You can easily drag and drop photos and links directly onto your friends icons located on the sidebar and have the content instantly sent to them through whichever social network you choose. No more copy and pasting, no more saving and resizing, just drag, drop and send.

Those are my top 5 reasons for defaulting Flock as MY browser. While it is still in its beginning stages, and does have a few quirks here and there, I still highly recommend trying it out for yourself.

Go Flock Yourself!