Pardon the pun, but it was absolutely necessary. I’m posting right now from within Flock, the new browser that is an offshoot of the Mozilla browser code. Right off the bat, I can say a few things about it in the 5 minutes I’ve been using it:

1. I really like the blog integration. In fact, I like it better than the actual Blogger interface. Plus, all my Flickr pictures load at the top of the screen when I change a little button called “Topbar” to Flickr. Then I can simply drag them into my post! Fabulous.

2. The use of del.icio.us in place of a favorites list. Who doesn’t like social networking services?? Now everyone can see the bookmarks that you create and want to share. And if you’re not at home, you can log into your account to show someone your favorite page (which, assumably, you can’t remember the address for…).

3. The interface is cute, and I haven’t yet gone around looking for alternate skins. I’m guessing they exist, although it’s probably too early in the game for people to develop their own. Well, it has been a full day… must be some somewhere.

4. Firefox crashes my Mac. I’m not sure why, or how, but I’m not the only one this happens to. Even though it’s based on the same code, maybe I’ll have better luck using something other than Safari at home.

5. There are easy RSS reader capabilites built right in, but I already use Bloglines. I’ve been happy with that web based reader, and have no desire to change as of yet, but maybe I’m missing something.

Overall, as Tom said on the podcast today, there’s nothing here that you can’t already get somewhere else. But it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

UPDATE! After I wrote all that, the Publish tool didn’t work. Soooo… thats to be expected. They’ll work the bugs out soon enough, I’m sure. Still happy with it!