Firefox 2.0 improves RSS subscriptions

The RSS Reader in Firefox 1.x was a first step, but compared to tools like NetNewsWire, it just can’t compete. Subscribing to RSS Feeds with other RSS readers was a major usability problem in Firefox 1.x, because you needed to get the URL of the RSS feed, which requires way to much work:

1. Find the URL. This may even require adding a live bookmark and opening its properties.
2. Copy the URL to the clipboard
3. Switch to the RSS reader
4. Click subscribe
5. Paste the link
6. Click subscribe / OK / whatever

This is way to much work compared to the near-ideal implementation on OS X:

1. Click an RSS URL. It does not matter whether it is on the page or the RSS symbol in the address bar.
2. The RSS reader pops up with a pre-filled subscribe box.
3. Click subscribe / OK / whatever

That’s it. No copy. No pasting. It just works. And the good news is: This feature will make it into Firefox 2.0:

Thus, painless RSS reading will be available not only to Firefox users on the Mac, but also to Windows users, who currently always have to walk through the six steps above. The only experience which comes close to the one on the Mac or with the new Firefox is Opera, but that locks you in to use Opera’s RSS reader as well.

This is good news, because it will foster the adoption of RSS as a news medium by a broader audience. So now let’s hope that Microsoft will adopt a similar function in the upcoming Windows Vista.