Is the Gmail RSS Feed Secure?

I've never really looked at how Google implements its RSS feed of your Gmail mailbox, but since they're a smart bunch, I wouldn't be surprised if the URL is fed to your RSS reader via an SSL connection rather than unsecurely. It's easy to find out, too.

Actually, well, it's not so easy. Gmail used to have a nice "subscribe via RSS" link on the Gmail home page, but it's now vanished. Fortunately, if you're running a browser or plug-in that has RSS autodiscovery, you can figure out that the RSS feed URL is:

Try as I might, though, I can't get Google Reader to accept it, even with the tips shown on the Gmail help page! There's a third-party Greasemonkey plug-in that helps with this integration (you can learn about it here: Gmail + Reader) but that doesn't solve the problem for everyone and it's crazy that a third-party plug-in should be required anyway.

What about NewsGator Online? Truth be told, NewsGator Online is a far more mature product and is an old pro at letting you subscribe to secure RSS feeds that require a login, as you can see if you click on "Add Feeds", "URL & Import" and then click on "Custom credentials":

Now you can enter the feed URL as shown earlier, then add your Gmail account username and password below. Click on "Add Feed" and you should be good to go, as shown:

The key question, though, isn't "can it be done", but "is it secure", and it turns out that Google has a note about that in its Gmail help area:

So that's your answer. If you're using a newsreader that can even handle the credentials required for Google's popular Gmail service, you'll want to go into the settings or configuration area and make sure that everything is properly secure and shut down from public view.