What the Flock?

I’ve been a strong supporter of Mozilla’s Firefox browser for quite a while now. Once I switched over to it, it has been hard to even consider using a different browser. Sure, I’ve tried them all to see what features they are going to give me, but I always end up going back to Firefox because of the amount of plug-ins I have become accustomed to using daily. As much as I love Google and I really do love the Google browser, without support for the plug-ins I use, I’m sorry but you just can’t be my default browser.

With that said, today I decided I was going to give Flock another shot. I had installed it shortly after it came out, ran through my normal routine of testing it out for 2 days and then rushing back to Firefox. But with the expansive growth of Social Media, I figured it was time to grab an update and see what’s new. What followed where 3 gigantic no-nos that left a sour taste in my mouth before I even started to check out any new features.

I loaded up Flock and went to the help menu and chose “Check for Updates.” No surprise there was one available and I told it to download the 16MB file and install it for me. When it was done I started Flock and was redirected to a page that said, “But wait, version 2.0.2 is available. Download now.” Wait a second! I just uploaded one minute ago. Why did the “Check for Updates” feature update me to a version that was already out of date?

Undeterred I upgraded to the latest version and started kicking the tires. A minute later I received an email in my 3rd party email application that contained a link. When I clicked the link, Flock opens up a new tab and starts loading the page. Wait just a second again! Without asking me (2 installs in 5 minutes and I don’t recall being asked) if I wanted Flock to be my default browser, they took it upon themselves to make Flock the default. This is monumentally NOT COOL. Don’t hide it in the terms and say “but you agreed to the terms.” Do not change settings on my computer without asking me first. Period!

When Firefox didn’t open up as my default, I went to my quick launch bar to start it up. The Firefox logo was no longer in it’s customary spot and it took me a second to realize what happened. During the install process for Flock my Firefox icon was replaced by a Flock icon. Clicking the link started Flock, not Firefox. This is inexcusable. I’m curious if they do the same thing to the Internet Explorer icon if that is your default browser. I’m betting not since Microsoft would likely reign down legal armageddon on them in 2.367 seconds.

Now, I know what you are going to say, “But Flock is now powered by Mozilla so it’s fine.” No, no it’s not. Until such a time that Flock and Firefox merge in to 1 product, they should treat my computer accordingly and not mess with settings that should be mutually exclusive.

And now that I’ve got this off my chest, I’m going to go back and test out Flock’s ability to run Firefox plugins as it says it can.

</rant>