I have been using flock under Linux now since version 1, and I love how it just has everything i need....RSS...Facebook etc. Though some basic options are still not present, which I think should be in the application my default.
Here are my suggestions to help improve flock, and make it more user friendly.
1. RSS - There should be an option to input how often you would like the RSS feeder to check for updates, this should be from 1min to x amount of hours
2. Google Search (live results) - The Google quick search (suggest) is still not installed by default, i know you can install that feature. Google is THE search engine and i feel this option would be nice, and make a lot of users happy.
3. Hide Unused Features - When you open Flock you have the myworld button, peopleside bar etc etc. Some people don't use the blog or RSS features etc etc, so having an option to hide these buttons until activated would help streamline the interface. The main ones to have by default would be, email, favorites, clipboard and Accounts and Services Sidebar buttons.
4. Google Search Area - This next to the address-bar is a nice feature, but implementing its capabilities with the address-bar would be nice....again this would help streamline the interface.
5. Social Networking All in one - I know a lot of people do this, they type what there doing/feeling in to Facebook then type the same into twitter etc. So what i think would be nice is if you typed a status into Facebook it would be applied to the other networks you have installed.
6. Facebook Chat - This would be nice if implemented just like they do, have this feature in the taskbar...if signed in to your Facebook account.
Hope the Flock Mods like my suggestions :)
Keep up the great work.
Emma
I'd also add the ability to add extra webmail a/cs that aren't AOL/Gmail/Yahoo...
emee
agrees on 5.
ChrisVance
These are all good thoughts.
I disagree on 3, Hide Unused Features, though. If the functionality is built to hide certain features/services, I think they should all appear by default. If everything is hidden the first time you use the browser, how are you going to discover the feature?
There is also a way right now to hide the MyWorld/People sidebar, etc. buttons that appear in the Flock UI. Right-click on a part of the UI above the web page and choose Customize. A Customize Toolbar window will appear in front. You can rearrange existing icons in the interface (including dragging icons to/from the small MyWorld/People/Web Clipboard area), remove icons from the browser window by dragging them into the Customize Toolbar window, and include additional icons present in that window.
Fun stuff.
Evan Hamilton
Hey Cyrus,
Great post, thanks for helping us know what you want out of your browser!
1. With Flock 2 we will finally have the ability to manually refresh feeds. Being able to set a refresh rate would definitely be a next step.
2. I can't speak with any certainty, but things are moving in a direction where we may be able to provide this.
3. I think ChrisVance is right on this one. Inconsistent interface is a no-no, but you're welcome to customize Flock's UI all you want (and you can always access the tools through key combos or the menus).
4. I'm not sure I understand this one...you're saying get rid of the search box altogether and just have search and address in the same place, like Chrome?
5. This is something I'm pushing very hard for, and it sounds like it'll probably happen, though not in the near future.
6. Definitely something we're talking and thinking about. It would be very cool if done right, which is the trick. Don't know if it'll happen, but definitely under consideration.
Emma: What webmail providers would you like to see work with Flock? We are investigating Hotmail, though things are not looking good so far.
Thanks to everyone for contributing...your feedback really does help us, and just yesterday I was presenting a proposed set of updates (including #5) because of feedback like yours!
Evan Hamilton
Community Ambassador
evan at flock dot com
------------------------------
EvanHamilton.com
Community Management, SEO, & Marketing Blog
Josi
Hi, I am very glad using Flock (first I want to apologise for my English; I am Spanish).
- Flock 2.X does not allow right clicking ("download image") in pages protected by javascript, while in Flock 1.X (like Firefox 2.X) allow the right clicking in the same type of pages.
- It would be interesting (if it were possible) to use accounts type "@hotmail.com; @live.com" in the webmail browser's function.
- In order to install in the Beta's the Spanish dictionary, it would be nice to could uninstall the English Dictionary.
- Like in Firefox 2.X, could recognize ed2k links in order to open the correspondent application.
Greetings from Spain.
;)
Li-AN
I'm testing Flock only for RSS reader purpose and I'm disapointed by the fact it's very very slow in RSS updating. When I launch Flock and take a look at my RSS I'm not sure I see the very last articles. I have to wait and looking at each RSS to see if it had been checked recently. Too bad...
ChrisVance
I believe the default frequency for RSS feed refreshes is once an hour. However, you can manually refresh a specific feed or all feeds. If you open the Feeds sidebar and right-click on a feed, select "Refresh Selected Feed" or "Refresh All."
Bulat
I would appreciate to be able to add videos into favorities etc. (especially to something like read-it-later add-on) directly from media bar. Maybe by dragging them to the sidebar or via a context menu.
bluFlock
"3. Hide Unused Features - When you open Flock you have the myworld button, peopleside bar etc etc. Some people don't use the blog or RSS features etc etc, so having an option to hide these buttons until activated would help streamline the interface. The main ones to have by default would be, email, favorites, clipboard and Accounts and Services Sidebar buttons."
...I think that everything should/could be activable-deactivable... more flexibilty, more usability... what do you think about?
"5. Social Networking All in one - I know a lot of people do this, they type what there doing/feeling in to Facebook then type the same into twitter etc. So what i think would be nice is if you typed a status into Facebook it would be applied to the other networks you have installed."
...same as I told before...
"6. Facebook Chat - This would be nice if implemented just like they do, have this feature in the taskbar...if signed in to your Facebook account."
...and, something like Adium? Something that can enable several chats all-in-one? Could be possible? I'm a Mac user, I love to have only one software to use many accounts, it's so useful!
I suggest a feature I love in Safari: to delete favorites from the toolbar simply dragging and dropping them out of the bar, without using the favorites manager ;-)
ChrisVance
@bluFlock: Regarding your comment about activating/deactivating features and providing more flexibility: I think this is actually less usable.
I've already mentioned my disagreement with this previously, but I do understand where the initial request is coming from. For instance, if you have not logged into an email account supported by Flock, do not show the email icon in the row of icons. This is bad in that for the user to know about the icon once they logged in, the engineers need to highlight the new icon to the users specifically. As Evan said, this would lead to an inconsistent interface, where icons could appear and disappear without explicit action by the user to modify the interface.
Where do you do the activation/deactivation? You can already log out and forget accounts. You (the user) can already take explicit action to remove icons from the interface by right-clicking on the browser and choosing Customize, then removing an icon by dragging it into the window that appears.
Offering more options in the Options dialog box, such as explicitly activating or deactivating a service, is not always the answer. In Jeff Johnson's book GUI Bloopers, this is Blooper 46, "Overwhelming users with decisions and details," (Section 5.2.1, pg 260 of the first edition).
ariapictures
The standard default is an hour for feeds to update?
Was that the issue for 1.x? I know every time I quit and restarted it updated all feeds, now it does not with 2.
Oh please, please, fix this. As most of my feeds have new posts on the minute, not hour. I may have to go back to Vienna. this was a big reason I use Flock.
ChrisVance
The default refresh rate is controlled by a config in "about:config". I think the config in question is flock.poller.defaultRefreshInterval. This is expressed in the number of seconds between refreshes, and can be changed as suited. It defaults to one hour (60 seconds x 60 minutes = 3600 seconds).
I can appreciate that you have feeds that update on a regular basis, but I think it's a poor decision to update all your feeds very frequently. It means you're directing extra traffic to the web sites, taking up server resources. Perhaps try refreshing every 20 minutes (1200 seconds) or 30 minutes (1800 seconds)?