Like most companies, we keep a close eye on what is driving traffic to our website.  The changes are fascinating to watch week to week...small blog posts end up sending solid chunks of traffic, large articles sometimes send surprisingly little, and occasionally very interesting items pop out at us.

About two months ago we started seeing major traffic from a new website: www.ThirtyDayChallenge2008.com.  We took a look at the site and discovered two interesting things:

1) They're recommending that everyone taking The Challenge use Flock as their primary browser.

2) They have a really cool thing going.

The Thirty Day Challenge is a program in which you spend thirty days learning about internet marketing and at the end, you will have made your first buck on the web.  It's a cool concept and is run in a great, no-strings-attached sort of way.  These guys make their money in internet marketing, and this project is about them giving back.  They've grown to be arguably the largest web-based learning program/community in just 4 years.  And they recommend Flock as their browser of choice because "Flock is the best web browser or internet browser that you can download... and is endlessly customizable."

So hats off to you, Thirty Day Challenge!  Thanks for the vote of confidence and good luck on your admirable mission.

Evan Hamilton
Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com

Hey Flockstars,

Last week an issue cropped up with the Google Toolbar and Flock 1.x.  The short answer is: Google Toolbar is causing Flock 1.x to crash, so we've disabled it so you can continue to use Flock.

The long answer:  This is not a matter of Google toolbar or Flock being broken: the toolbar is reading Flock 1.x's user agent string as Firefox 3, and trying to do things Flock 1.x can't do, causing a crash.

We've reported this issue to Google, and hopefully they will get the toolbar updated so it realizes that Flock 1.x is based on Firefox 2.  You can help by submitting a report of this issue to Google at http://www.google.com/support/firefox/bin/request.py?contact_type=problem.

The toolbar should work just fine in the Flock 2 beta, which is based on Firefox 3.  This is a great opportunity for you to grab Flock 2.  Although though still in beta, the changes provided by Firefox 3 already make Flock 2.0 a vastly superior product.  Beta 2 has largely been found to be stable, so making the switch is more likely to improve your browsing experience than hurt it.  You can download it and find more information at http://www.flock.com/beta/download

Update: If you've installed Flock 2.0 Beta 2 on Windows and are still having issues with Google Toolbar, the following steps may help:

If you are on another operating system and would like similar instructions to accomplish this task, please email me directly at the email address listed below.

Evan Hamilton
Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com

I have a great job.

Every day, a large chunk of my day is spent reading feedback from Flockstars like you on Twitter, our forums, our blog, our feedback tool, across the blogsphere and beyond.  I do a lot of logging of feature requests, troubleshooting and explaining features, but I also get to read an amazing amount of wonderful, positive feedback.  I send the highlights out to the Flock staff, but I truly get to bask in all this great feedback.  It's really heartening to see that we are making the web browsing experience so much better for so many people.

This feedback is so awesome, in fact, that I can't keep holding it in.  I want to share this love, and give props to the folks who are telling the world how much they love Flock.  Welcome to the first edition of "You Can't Make This Stuff Up", an ongoing segment in which I'll be reposting the love that people are giving to Flock.

If you wish for us to remove something you said or credit you differently, please contact me at evan at flock dot com.  The opinions expressed on the blogs and Twitter accounts we link to are not those of me or Flock.  Unless they're cool.

Flock 1.2 love

"If you are using web 2.0 tools you NEED to use the Flock browser: Flock rules! Goodbye FireFox. I'll miss you!"
Posted on Twitter by Brad Trnavsky

“The best thing that’s ever happened to me.  For the Web 2.0 obsessed like me, this will make your life easier.”
Blog Post by Margot Stephenson

"Have been using Flock for 2 days now. The social integration is awesome! It is a step beyond Firefox as Firefox is beyond Internet Exploder."
Posted on Twitter by Bradley C Hughes

"It is the best browser I have ever used.  Better than Firefox by a thousand miles, better than Safari by 10,000 miles, and better than Internet Explorer and Netscape by a million miles."
Blog Post by Susan Vaughn

Love for Flock 2 Beta (one):

"I am abusing flock 2.0b1 (26 tabs currently open) and its holding up like a dream "
Posted on Twitter by Ryan Skadberg

Holy hotcakes, batman! Flock 2.0 is blazing!!"
Posted on Twitter by Amy Hussey

"Hello permanent use of Flock 2, bye bye FireFox and Safari. It's loooove for this social media junkie.."
Posted on Twitter by Leslie

"Flock 2 + Firefox 3 engine = best browser ever"
Posted on Twitter by Max Barkhatov

Thanks so much to everyone who broadcasts their love of Flock every day.  We appreciate it more than we can express, and I'm looking forward to publishing more of it in the next "You Can't Make This Stuff Up".

Flock'n'roll,

Evan Hamilton
Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com

Hey Flockstars,

First of all, a big thanks to all those who showed up to the Flockstar meetup in San Francisco last night. It was a small group, but we had a blast being able to talk to you face-to-face, show you 1.2, and talk about non-tech stuff.  We hope you had a good time too, and we'll definitely do another meetup soon!

I've been at the Web 2.0 Expo on and off all week.  We ran into a lot of Flockstars, including at the booths; IBM was apparently sporting Flock in their demos, and Coghead had a very passionate (and now stickered-up) Flock evangelist demoing their product with Flock.  I saw people rocking Flock on a number of laptops in the sessions, and got a lot of thumbs up for my Flockstar shirt.  We know you're out there, but it's just great to see the actual faces of people who use our product.

I think by far one of the most interested and pertinent sessions was one hosted by Jonah Peretti (of Buzzfeed) called "Influence is Overrated".  Jonah himself is a great study in how someone who would not be considered an "influencer" or an expert could end up on Good Morning America and in People talking about sweatshops and relationships.  Jonah started several projects for fun because he found them entertaining (such as ordering custom Nike shoes with the word "Sweatshop" on them) that spread and spread until they organically found their way to the press.

The point here is not that Jonah is a brilliant tactician or a key influencer; it's that he created something that was compelling to REAL people.  They sent these amusing sites off to their other friends who sent it to others who sent it to still more, until it became big enough that Katie Couric discovered it.  He was not a key influencer, but he influenced people because he had a compelling product that spread like wildfire.

I love this concept, because we've never made Flock for the critics.  We originally started building Flock because we wanted a tool to make our online lives easier.  We knew that you needed and wanted it too, but just didn't know quite what "it" was.  This is also why Flock was built as a full browser: instead of having to assemble your online experience, we do our best to build and integrate it for you (while still providing many customization and extension abilities).  We have grown and spread significantly in the last few years, and it's not because of key influencers writing about us.  It's because of YOU writing to your friends about Flock, YOU proudly sporting your "Blogged with Flock" tags, YOU putting Flockstar stickers on your laptops and shirts on your bodies, and YOU telling people that they HAVE to try Flock.  You have more influence than anyone labeled an "influencer" will ever have, because you are real and passionate and your own community listens to you.

Thank you for lending your influence to Flock.  I hope you will continue to evangelize Flock whenever you get a chance.  We'll keep innovating and improving it for you.

See you at the next meetup...shoot me some ideas about when and where we should hold one!

Evan Hamilton
Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com

Hey Flockstars,

UPDATE: The event is a go!
Come meet up with us on Thursday!

Some of us from Flock HQ will be ducking our heads into Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco next week.  How many people would be interested in grabbing drinks and food with some members of the Flock team?  We can talk about what's coming up, what you're hoping for in Flock, what you love, and how we can continue to spread this awesome community.  It'll be casual and fun, and we'll bring some Flock swag for you.

We'd love to meet up with you, so drop a comment here or email me directly if you'll be in the Bay Area next week and interested in a meetup!

Flock'n'roll,

Evan Hamilton
Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com

Hey Flockstars,

As we noted in March, Flock's community is growing.  I have been lucky enough to work with and be part of an amazing, passionate, vocal community so far, and all signs point to this community of Flockstars growing in coolness as well as size.

As you have seen me say time and time again, your feedback is very important to us.  We are building this browser for YOU, and making the collective you happy is our primary goal.  This manifests in many ways: integrating services that you clamor for (like Picasa), working with you to quickly and efficiently crush bugs, bridging the gap and meeting you where you hang out (www.twitter.com/flocker), etc.

Your awesome feedback pours into us through the forums, our feedback tool and social networks.  Several members of the team, including our executives, read this feedback daily and respond to as many as possible.  I personally have spent many a late night responding to your feature requests and comments.  Frequently, the love you have sent in gets emailed out to the staff.

However, we are growing and have been unable to keep up with the flood of your feedback. Another company might find a way to cut down on your feedback.  They might make it harder to find these tools (like my bank does!), give you preformatted responses saying "thanks for your interest", or simply not respond. Flock is not one of those companies.

And so, I am thrilled to introduce our newest team member.  Jen Anderberg started at Flock last week as our Community Support Lead. In the coming weeks she will take over more and more of the "support" side of your feedback, while I continue to concentrate on your feature requests, your general happiness with Flock, and helping you get the word out about the social browser.

Jen resides at Flock North, our Canadian office, and will also be assisting that team wherever they need it.  She is an English major and a smart cookie, and will undoubtably be filling many different roles, like we all do here at Flock.

Please give Jen a warm welcome and do please continue to send your feedback to www.flock.com/feedback, our forums, here on our blog or directly to me or Jen. We're very excited about being able to respond to you even quicker!

Flock'n'roll,

Evan Hamilton
Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com

Hey Flockstars,

I was sitting in the weekly Flock Staff Meeting today, and I couldn't help but mention to the team: "our community is awesome!"

I feel this way all the time, but the reason I had to specifically call it out this week is because you all have been incredibly supportive and helpful during the short sidebar outage (two Flockstars even provided their Facebook login info to help us track it down).

Minutes later, while trying to digest some intense staff meeting pasta, I ran across the awesometacular Gary Vaynerchuck's video about "Good People Day 08".  He is always an inspiring guy, but he is positively bursting about GPD08, for good reason: there are few better feelings than recognizing and thanking good people in your life.

With that in mind, Flock would like to officially hand our Good People Day '08 thumbs up to you, our fantastic community.

There is a reason we affectionately refer to those who use Flock as Flockstars.  You folks rock.  You are our stars.  Because of you, we are able to continue having a blast making this product we LOVE.  Because of your constant feedback, we are able to make Flock better and better in a way we never could entirely through internal brainstorming.

Most importantly, because of your outspoken love for Flock, your ecstatic word-of-mouth, your blog posts, your Twittering, your VOICE, we are still here building an amazing browser that we care about just as much as you do.

Thank you.

Keep on spreading the word and we'll keep making this thing for you.

Now it's your turn...head out into the world and thank the good people in your lives.

Flock'n'roll,

Evan Hamilton
Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com

Hey Flockstars,

We've been quiet on the blog front for the last few weeks because we've been working very hard.

Hey Flockstars,

I will be setting up Flock's booth at MacWorld on Monday and unable to hold Community Office Hours.  I will try to reschedule for later in the week.
If you're in the Bay Area and would like to chat about Flock in person, drop me a line at evan at flock dot com; I'd love to set up a Flockstar meetup near MacWorld for some night next week.

Flock on,

Evan Hamilton
Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com

Happy Holidays to all you Flockstars out there! The Flock team hopes you all have a great time with whatever celebrations you have planned, and we hope you'll give the gift of Flock to those in your life who haven't discovered it.