Flock is designed to streamline and emphasize how you interface with social networking sites, RSS and media feeds, and blogs. Because it’s built on Firefox 3, its behavior will feel familiar and it supports most–but not all–Firefox extensions. And yes, the “awesome bar” is part of the latest version.

Flock’s social network savvy sidebar is the reason to get this browser. Buttons at the top of the collapsible sidebar make accessing any of your social networking or frequently used Web sites easier than Twittering what you had for breakfast. Feature-focused, each button either helps you get your message out faster, like dragging and dropping photos into Flickr, or helps you read your friends’ messages quicker, like the integrated RSS reader. The People button turns the sidebar into a nifty way to track all your social networking accounts. Your avatar is displayed on the left, while the right contains links for new messages and new comments. The bottom holds the links to upload new media when applicable and a hot link to open or close your media stream.

There are also hot links to most major blogging sites, and if you choose to configure it for your own self-published blog, Flock guides you through the process. New users will likely find it overwhelming at first, but it really does give you a more comprehensive and real-time view into your social network than you can get otherwise.