Given the underwhelming past few years in Flock‘s history and the seemingly lukewarm post-launch response to RockMelt, I’m not entirely convinced that anyone actually wants a bunch of social networking stuff tied into their browser. So far, the browsers that pull the bigger numbers are the ones that suck the least, not the ones with the most feature bloat. Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Alas, you can’t have a trendy feature without every little guy taking a swing at it. Next up with the bat? SkyFire.
This morning, Skyfire (best known as being that browser that can play Flash videos on various smartphone platforms by converting them on-the-fly into friendlier formats) announced version 3.0 for Android. They’ve unofficially dubbed this build the “Facebook Edition”, and with good reason:
* Popular Content: Already on a site you dig (like, say, MobileCrunch) and want to see what everyone else is reading there? The Popular Content button will scan the full public-facing Facebook network for popular linkage to content on the site you’re currently at, prioritizing anything your friends have linked.
* Fireplace: A filtered news feed reader, which slims things down to just the links/videos/images your friends have posted
* One-click shortcut to your profile
* A “Like” button on every page
* Facebook support within SkyFire’s OneSearch searching toolbar
With SkyFire’s main sell being Flash support, it makes sense for them to start branching out a bit right now; Adobe’s making a big ol’ push into Android territory with their own Flash add-on, so SkyFire needs to find a new thing to bring to the platform — but is Facebook integration really the answer? Do you really want Facebook to be a part of your core browsing experience? Weigh in down in the comments.