Firefox as an RSS aggregator or reader?

Dave, You say Firefox has "elegant built-in RSS capabilities but I can not find it in any menu or help. How do I get Firefox to function as an RSS 'browser' or aggregator?

Dave's Answer:

While Firefox has built-in RSS capabilities, it's perhaps too integrated into the browser because I see a lot of these sort of queries in my mailbox. The trick is to pay attention to the status bar on the bottom right of the window.

Do a Google search, for example, and you'll see a tiny "GP" link on the status bar. Click it and -- surprise! -- you get screenshots of the matching pages integrated into the Google results. This is actually a Google trick, not a Firefox trick (with a little help from Alexa), but it's certainly neat.

Go to a Web site that has an RSS or Atom feed, and there's a new icon on the bottom right, a set of orange lines. Click on that and you'll find that you can subscribe to that site's RSS feed directly.

I popped over to my colleague Kathy Sierra's terrific Creating Passionate Users and here's what I saw on the very bottom of my Firefox browser:

Pretty subtle, I agree, but it's there. Click on the icon, choose the type of feed you'd like to read (I defer to RSS but you might like Atom) and it's now a bookmark in your browser like any other. Or is it?

When I look at that bookmark, I find that it magically shows all the available RSS headlines for that particular site:

At the end of the day, I'd say that Firefox supports and understands RSS, but doesn't have an aggregator, per se.

On the other hand, there are some nice add-ons and extensions that make Firefox more RSS friendly, notably Sage and the Wizz Newsreader.

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Categorized: Computer and Internet Basics (Article 3901, Written by Dave Taylor)
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Reader Comments To Date: 7

Bill Crawford said, on February 27, 2005 3:23 PM:

The GP in the statusbar you mention is an extention called Google Preview (http://ackroyd.de/googlepreview/) not part of the Firefox download.

Dave Taylor said, on February 27, 2005 3:34 PM:

Right you are, Bill. I noticed after I'd written this entry that when I listed my Extensions that Google Preview was already installed. I can only conclude that it showed up pre-installed with FF 1.0.1 since I certainly don't recall downloading it.

Phil said, on February 28, 2005 3:34 PM:

Problem with Wizz is that it requires you to set up an account on an external service! At least with Sage it's completely self contained.

Dave Taylor said, on February 28, 2005 3:43 PM:

Thanks for the tip, Phil! I actually use NewsGator -- http://www.newsgator.com/ -- so that I'm browser and location independent, so I don't have first-hand experience with either Sage or Wizz.

Ed Wugalter said, on March 1, 2005 2:01 PM:

I use Firefox 1.01
I did the Google search but don't see the GP link at the bottom right . I do have the "Add Live Bookmark" orange icon.

What am I doing wrong ?

Dave Taylor said, on March 1, 2005 2:26 PM:

Ed, you apparently need to download Google Preview (http://ackroyd.de/googlepreview/) and install it.

Leslie said, on May 24, 2007 2:39 PM:

Thanks, Dave! After much searching in the bottom right, I found my little icon in the TOP right of the menu bar, next to the URL. I've been using Firefox forever, but had never used this handy feature. Nifty! [Windows XP and Firefox 2.0.0.3]

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

Firefox as an RSS aggregator or reader?

Reader Comments To Date: 7

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

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