I'm not flocking to Flock

I've just tried the new "social" web-browser, Flock. It's supposed to integrate your Facebook, Twitter, Etc, Etc, Etcetera feeds and pages into one (somewhat) unified interface. You can tell that interface is MS-Windows.

"Convoluted" is one word I'd use. "Complicated" is another. "Simple, this ain't" is a phrase that comes to mind. "That's a lot of buttons!" is yet another. I could probably simplify the thing, but I don't have the time to go figure it out, right now. Internet Explorer has something like a billion zillion buttons and options, immediately available to the user, and taking up staggering amounts of screen. Safari (my preferred browser) has 7 or 8 buttons, plus my "Favorites Bar" (as opposed to my favorite bar... :-) ).

Flock released the Mac version of their browser the other day; they clearly didn't take any time to make the interface Mac-like. It feels like a Windows app; it behaves like one, too. Instead of guiding me through the process of setting up the various bits, it lets me figure out where to start and what it does. Setup Facebook, and a sidebar mysteriously appears. Click "Flickr" and it puts a black bar across the top of its window that gets filled in with pictures, but I don't know what the pictures are (certainly not my contacts on Flickr); I have no idea how to change this. It's not load-up-and-go friendly. For instance, even though Apple changed Safari's interface with Snow Leopard, I had it figured out in no time flat. When I use IE, as I had to the other day, I was left with the impression that Microsoft calls its search engine "Bing" because "bling" was taken. IE's interface is all about the bling. Safari is all about staying out of the way as much as possible. (He says, restarting the Apple/Windows war... :-) )

Flock has a little thingie that does something with blogs. I don't know what - it wouldn't load. When I tried to load this blog, it said it had detected multiple feeds, did I want to do something with them? Do what? Where? Why? I don't know. ... No. I want to get to my blog.

Yes, I am aware that I'm advocating two contradictory user-interface models; give me options, but hide them. So? Other companies manage to figure it out. Why can't a company like Flock? A good OS X app pretty much gets out of the way; sometimes too much so. I'm not particularly impressed with iWork, for instance. It's usable, and I use it. I just wish it paid more attention to how I work, and didn't quite insist on forcing me to work like Steve Jobs. I love iPhoto; again, it could do with improvements, but it's easy to figure out, and it's easy to continue using. It's not like some apps that are easy to get started with, but which offer "Neophyte" mode forever, or you can switch to "Globally recognized expert" mode with nothing in-between (MS Office strongly leans toward that). Overall, a decent OS X interface is a joy to use; sensible defaults, and a simple way of changing them.

When I've used OS X apps that need to be configured, I want the app to walk me through the process. Apple Mail is a good example; it knows the main email services, so I pick the email service, tell it my user id (I guess "id" (eye-dee) is a word?), and it goes off and does the rest for me. Flock returns a confusing window. Well, it might not be confusing to Windows users, but I'm a simple chap and I don't like complicated stuff.

If OS X is clean lines and stylish design, MS Windows is the unfortunate offspring of Art Nouveau and Victoriana. Flock is florid Rococo with extra flourishes because the designers thought it was too stark.

Overall, my first impression is "wow, that's unnecessarily complicated". I'll give Flock another go in a wee while, but so far the portends are not positive. (I've got to look up its competitor, if I can remember what it's called. Perhaps it's better?)

Carolyn Ann