Getting Flock up and running with your favorite services is simple. The first time you open Flock, it will prompt you to log in to supported social sites. Once you log in to a service, Flock can automatically add that service to your People sidebar (click on the Remember Account drop-down). This People sidebar is where Flock shines. Each time you log in to a new supported account, that account appears in the People sidebar. From there, you can click on any of the account icons to see each service individually, or you can click on the All button to see every status update from all of your services aggregated into one chronological feed.

You can even post updates to supported sites directly from the People sidebar. If you have a particular , Flock's FlockCast feature can even post any action you undertake on one of your other social sites--such as uploading new pictures to Flickr--directly to your Facebook account.

The fact that Flock is a download has its pros and cons. On the plus side, Flock doesn't require you to give the keys to your social media to just any old third-party Web site, and that helps to preserve your . On the minus side, social media aggregation is just one aspect of Flock--it's a complete Web browser, and unless you want to switch your Web browsing duties over to Flock entirely, using Flock just for social media aggregation is a bit like carrying around an entire toolbox when all you use is one screwdriver. (Some people won't find that bothersome in the least.)

Also, since Flock is not Web-based, you can access your aggregated social media via Flock only on computers where you can download and install the application, meaning you'll be out of luck on most public and some work computers.