Revving a classic cliché
So there's been some more talk lately about Flock and extensions and relevancy and Performancing's new blogging tool for Firefox. I'm all for it. The more we talk about open source, about Firefox, about Flock, about coming up with better, cooler …
Context & Ripple Effects
Flock entered the market as a Firefox-based open-source browser aimed at bloggers and Web 2.0 users, with sharing features built into the browser. Its arrival followed an early Web 2.0 browser pitch that made publishing and social services a browser-level differentiator.
Performancing has instead released a beta blogging extension for Firefox and is soliciting feedback. That puts a blogging workflow inside the broader Firefox install base rather than requiring writers to adopt a separate browser.
First-order effects
- Firefox users who blog gain an in-browser publishing tool from Performancing, while the beta-feedback process gives Performancing a direct channel to refine its extension.
- Flock faces a clearer comparison with an extension-led alternative: blogging features are no longer exclusive to a dedicated browser experience.
Second-order effects
- Flock must make its integrated sharing and blogging experience distinct from what Firefox users can assemble through extensions.
- Firefox’s extension ecosystem gains another use case that can reinforce switching from Internet Explorer by pairing browser choice with task-specific tools.
Third-order effects
- If publishing tools continue to arrive as Firefox extensions, browser competition shifts toward the ecosystem around the core browser rather than a single vendor’s bundled feature set.
The trend: Open-source browsers are becoming platforms where extensions can turn general-purpose browsing into focused publishing workflows.