The social-networking themed browser, Flock, has recently released Flock 3 Beta. The new version is almost entirely new from previous versions. First and foremost, it is now based off of the open-source project, Chromium, which runs Google Chrome. Previously, it was based off of Mozilla, powering Firefox. With Chromium, you'll see major speed improvements, the ability to add Chrome's extensions to Flock, a similar installer, and overall similar feature set. But what sets Flock apart from the rest of the browsers is its built in integration of social networks.

This browser, on first install, has you set up a quick and free Flock account which would then allow you to set up your Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube account for immediate integration in the browser. In the sidebar would be a combined feed of all your services. In addition, a section of the home page called Groups allows you to sort people in your social networks into specific groups for better viewing of who you care about most.

Courtesy: CNET

Now that it's based off of Chrome, you can install almost all of the Chrome extensions available in the Google Chrome Extensions gallery and utilize them on Flock as you would on Google Chrome.

As for my own opinion of Flock, I think highly -- but not too highly -- of this browser. It's great for people who have more than one social network they like to keep up with. For people just using Facebook or just using Twitter, the features in Flock probably aren't a necessary addition to your browsing experience. The new design of Flock is streamlined and sleek, but I think it tries too hard and comes off a little plain. I remember trying out Flock 1.0 based off of Firefox. It was ridiculously slow  ugly as sin.

But what ended Flock 3 for me after about 20 minutes of use was its terribly poor bookmark management. Specifically, it's the fact that you can't have a bookmark folder in the bookmarks toolbar. In fact, you can't even have a folder. They are called little "tags" which take quite a few clicks to get to in the Favorites section of your home page. Tags cannot be dragged into the toolbar, only individual bookmarks. So I ended up with an enormous amount of clutter in my bookmarks bar.

Flock, add better bookmark management and maybe spruce up your UI a bit, and you'll be getting a well-deserved second chance. For those of you who'd like to try out the new beta, it's open and available for free at beta.flock.com.