Do you surf Twitter and Facebook on your Web browser instead of employing a separate desktop app for these popular social networks? There are many who prefer to opt for the browser tab to run everything online rather than try switching among programs. Of course, if you wish to network sans deserting your browser, Flock is a great choice.

Flock automatically pulls your Twitter, YouTube and Facebook accounts into the browser. What more can you do with it? First, it can display status updates of your friends in a browser sidebar just next to whatever site you are surfing. You also can easily keep up on everyone in your network without leaving browser window. You may search their updates even while searching the Web.

Flock makes use of Chrome’s open-source version with some added functions. How does it bring value to your browsing and networking experience?

• It starts faster than Internet Explorer or Firefox. It also opens pages quickly.
• You can operate it by punching in either search terms or URLs into the browser window’s text box. Google terms this the omnibox.
• By clicking on the omnibox, or typing Ctrl-L, you can do almost everything on the Internet. The smart omnibox tells if you’re putting a URL, a shortcut to specific services or a search term.
• It won’t display the unnecessary ‘http://’ at the start of a URL, making it easier to grasp. Flock adds more to Google Chrome by bringing your followers on social media into the browser as resources that can be search.
• The first time you will log in to a social network, Flock will pop up a sidebar with the most recent status updates from it. It will offer to memorize your account password details for next time. It indexes the status updates that are visible to your social network accounts.
• The omnibox not only recommends your recently visited webpages that match your search query, but also suggests individual status updates from followers and friends, which include that particular term.
• Flock allows you to respond to updates bang in the middle of the page, leaving the whole browser view intact. This keeps your work flow intact.

There are few other in-browser social tools like Seesmic Web that have beaten Flock to be used on Macs, not needing to run Chrome. But Flock’s omnibox search is still worth a look. With it you can stay keeping connected to your friends in ways you probably wouldn’t have managed otherwise.