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I have used RSS for years now. I check google reader about as often as I check hacker news. I start my morning off with a cup of coffee while I read my feeds us

I have used RSS for years now. I check google reader about as often as I check hacker news. I start my morning off with a cup of coffee while I read my feeds using Reeder on the iphone or ipad. Not once have I used any of the RSS features of a browser. I really don't see the point. I guess google doesn't either.

thirdsun 16y ago
i couldn't agree more. Breakfast, Coffee and Reeder is my morning routine. And a browser's RSS features are indeed too limited - third-party web- and mobile apps are much more sophisticated when it comes to RSS. What I'm more worried about is the trend to only show an excerpt or introduction of an increasing number of articles. Given the fact that most of those sites rely on ads, it's fair to do that though.
- DrJokepu 16y ago
  Excerpts only in RSS annoy the hell out of me and here's why: I usually read my RSS feed in Reeder on my iPhone during my morning commute. There's still no mobile reception on the London Underground (I'll resist the temptation for now and save that rant for another time) meaning that all I can read is what have been cached by Reeder before I left home. Which means that I'm unable to read posts that only have excerpts in RSS. They should figure out some other way to monetize their RSS feeds; I particularly like Daring Fireball's approach of having sponsored RSS-only posts every now and then (that are actually interesting to read).
  - jonknee 16y ago
    Full text RSS makes it really easy for your content to show up on spam blogs, which is why I think it's not used all the time.
  - dools 16y ago
    You might be interested this in this article: http://www.steverubel.com/instapaper-20-turns-every-rss-feed-full-text http://www.steverubel.com/instapaper-20-turns-every-rss-feed...
  - albertogh 16y ago
    Email me (address is in my profile) and I'll send you a promo code for Printful. It extracts full articles from web pages, so you'll be able to read all your news from the underground.
Sindisil 16y ago
Sadly, some blogs have begun to rely on RSS functionality in the browser, and don't place an RSS link visibly on the page. That makes it rather difficult to subscribe.
- thebooktocome 16y ago
  Most of the time you can copy the site's URL into Google Reader and it will try to find the proper RSS feed. It works for blogs hosted on Blogger and Wordpress, at least; not sure how it does it.
  - troels 16y ago
    "not sure how it does it." The same way that some browsers do it. There is a meta-tag in the page, which describes which feed formats are available, and where to find them.
    - geekfactor 16y ago
      <link rel="alternate"> to be precise.
    - thebooktocome 16y ago
      I think it's a bit more than that. It's worked on sites that Safari can't find a feed for, and I presume Safari looks for the meta-tag.
      - TomasSedovic 16y ago
        I guess Google Reader uses a database of feeds that other people subscribed to. For one thing, it shows you the whole history of the feed -- even when the XML itself contains just the few most recent items.
  - IChrisI 16y ago
    I enter the site name and it works too. Google is good at data parsing :)
tmgrhm 16y ago
The thing annoying me about this (sensationalist) article is just that… nobody wants to use their web browser for RSS: they want to browse with it. It also cites the lack of a reader in Chrome as a sign of RSS' impending doom, while ignoring the fact Google also run a (really good) RSS service for free called Google Reader, which is much more intuitively named than RSS and whose name is easier to understand than the RSS icon. By the article's logic, one could also predict the imminent death of word processing, IM, (both of which Google also freely offer) and 99% of other programs, all due to the fact they don't have buttons on Firefox's already over-cluttered toolbar.
- StavrosK 16y ago
  For me, the best solution is Opera's. It gives you a sort of summary of the feed when you click on it, and asks you where you want to add it (Opera RSS reader, Google Reader, etc). I click Google Reader and it's added automatically.
  - andreyf 16y ago
    That sounds like a good implementation. I imagine the Chrome team would agree, and suggest users install the extension which does just that, if they like it: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/nlbjncdgjeocebhnmkbbbdekmmmcbfjd https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/nlbjncdgjeocebhn... Actually, just about everything he mentions could be done using a Chrome extension (modifying the new tab page, for example).
Samuel_Michon 16y ago
I don't use the browser's RSS feature either. I only use Google Reader's web app to subscribe to feeds. When I want to read the articles, I do so on the go, with NetNewsWire or Reeder on iPhone or iPad. Before this blog post, I hadn't even noticed that Chrome doesn't have RSS built-in, so I won't miss it in Firefox 4 either. It would be nice if Mobile Safari had a button to add feeds to my Google Reader account, but I doubt that will ever happen, unless Apple chooses to implement a similar solution in MobileMe. I would settle for a bookmarklet, though (like Instapaper offers). In any case, as long as all popular blogging services and CMSes have syndication turned on by default, I don't think we're in any danger of RSS dying off.
- Groxx 16y ago
  Bookmarklet: javascript:var%20b=document.body;var%20GR________bookmarklet_domain='http://www.google.com';if(b&&!document.xmlVersion)%7Bvoid(z=document.createElement('script'));void(z.src='http://www.google.com/reader/ui/subscribe-bookmarklet.js');void(b.appendChild(z));%7Delse%7Blocation='http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed/'+encodeURIComponent(location.href)%7D The link isn't always there, but it appears at times on the "home" page for Reader. edit: it will, unfortunately, take you to Reader if it finds a feed, to give you the option of subscribing. So it's not quite Instapaper-like. But, better than nothing :) I get a lot of use out of it.
  - Samuel_Michon 16y ago
    Works great, thanks for the tip!
tim_iles 16y ago
Same. I star articles from Newsrob (which syncs to Google Reader) and use a script to fire up articles / unstar while drinking my morning coffee. (Explanation and script bookmarklet here: http://bit.ly/hb0YMU http://bit.ly/hb0YMU )
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
shashank261 16y ago
I guess the reasons for RSS being killed are 1. Search engines do not want it. 2. Advertisers do not want it. 3. Its only use by people who are tech savvy.

thirdsun 16y ago

i couldn't agree more. Breakfast, Coffee and Reeder is my morning routine. And a browser's RSS features are indeed too limited - third-party web- and mobile apps are much more sophisticated when it comes to RSS. What I'm more worried about is the trend to only show an excerpt or introduction of an increasing number of articles. Given the fact that most of those sites rely on ads, it's fair to do that though.

DrJokepu 16y ago
Excerpts only in RSS annoy the hell out of me and here's why: I usually read my RSS feed in Reeder on my iPhone during my morning commute. There's still no mobile reception on the London Underground (I'll resist the temptation for now and save that rant for another time) meaning that all I can read is what have been cached by Reeder before I left home. Which means that I'm unable to read posts that only have excerpts in RSS. They should figure out some other way to monetize their RSS feeds; I particularly like Daring Fireball's approach of having sponsored RSS-only posts every now and then (that are actually interesting to read).
- jonknee 16y ago
  Full text RSS makes it really easy for your content to show up on spam blogs, which is why I think it's not used all the time.
- dools 16y ago
  You might be interested this in this article: http://www.steverubel.com/instapaper-20-turns-every-rss-feed-full-text http://www.steverubel.com/instapaper-20-turns-every-rss-feed...
- albertogh 16y ago
  Email me (address is in my profile) and I'll send you a promo code for Printful. It extracts full articles from web pages, so you'll be able to read all your news from the underground.

Sindisil 16y ago

Sadly, some blogs have begun to rely on RSS functionality in the browser, and don't place an RSS link visibly on the page. That makes it rather difficult to subscribe.

thebooktocome 16y ago
Most of the time you can copy the site's URL into Google Reader and it will try to find the proper RSS feed. It works for blogs hosted on Blogger and Wordpress, at least; not sure how it does it.
- troels 16y ago
  "not sure how it does it." The same way that some browsers do it. There is a meta-tag in the page, which describes which feed formats are available, and where to find them.
  - geekfactor 16y ago
    <link rel="alternate"> to be precise.
  - thebooktocome 16y ago
    I think it's a bit more than that. It's worked on sites that Safari can't find a feed for, and I presume Safari looks for the meta-tag.
    - TomasSedovic 16y ago
      I guess Google Reader uses a database of feeds that other people subscribed to. For one thing, it shows you the whole history of the feed -- even when the XML itself contains just the few most recent items.
- IChrisI 16y ago
  I enter the site name and it works too. Google is good at data parsing :)

tmgrhm 16y ago

The thing annoying me about this (sensationalist) article is just that… nobody wants to use their web browser for RSS: they want to browse with it. It also cites the lack of a reader in Chrome as a sign of RSS' impending doom, while ignoring the fact Google also run a (really good) RSS service for free called Google Reader, which is much more intuitively named than RSS and whose name is easier to understand than the RSS icon. By the article's logic, one could also predict the imminent death of word processing, IM, (both of which Google also freely offer) and 99% of other programs, all due to the fact they don't have buttons on Firefox's already over-cluttered toolbar.

StavrosK 16y ago
For me, the best solution is Opera's. It gives you a sort of summary of the feed when you click on it, and asks you where you want to add it (Opera RSS reader, Google Reader, etc). I click Google Reader and it's added automatically.
- andreyf 16y ago
  That sounds like a good implementation. I imagine the Chrome team would agree, and suggest users install the extension which does just that, if they like it: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/nlbjncdgjeocebhnmkbbbdekmmmcbfjd https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/nlbjncdgjeocebhn... Actually, just about everything he mentions could be done using a Chrome extension (modifying the new tab page, for example).

Samuel_Michon 16y ago

I don't use the browser's RSS feature either. I only use Google Reader's web app to subscribe to feeds. When I want to read the articles, I do so on the go, with NetNewsWire or Reeder on iPhone or iPad. Before this blog post, I hadn't even noticed that Chrome doesn't have RSS built-in, so I won't miss it in Firefox 4 either. It would be nice if Mobile Safari had a button to add feeds to my Google Reader account, but I doubt that will ever happen, unless Apple chooses to implement a similar solution in MobileMe. I would settle for a bookmarklet, though (like Instapaper offers). In any case, as long as all popular blogging services and CMSes have syndication turned on by default, I don't think we're in any danger of RSS dying off.

Groxx 16y ago
Bookmarklet: javascript:var%20b=document.body;var%20GR________bookmarklet_domain='http://www.google.com';if(b&&!document.xmlVersion)%7Bvoid(z=document.createElement('script'));void(z.src='http://www.google.com/reader/ui/subscribe-bookmarklet.js');void(b.appendChild(z));%7Delse%7Blocation='http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed/'+encodeURIComponent(location.href)%7D The link isn't always there, but it appears at times on the "home" page for Reader. edit: it will, unfortunately, take you to Reader if it finds a feed, to give you the option of subscribing. So it's not quite Instapaper-like. But, better than nothing :) I get a lot of use out of it.
- Samuel_Michon 16y ago
  Works great, thanks for the tip!

tim_iles 16y ago

Same. I star articles from Newsrob (which syncs to Google Reader) and use a script to fire up articles / unstar while drinking my morning coffee. (Explanation and script bookmarklet here: http://bit.ly/hb0YMU http://bit.ly/hb0YMU )

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

shashank261 16y ago

I guess the reasons for RSS being killed are 1. Search engines do not want it. 2. Advertisers do not want it. 3. Its only use by people who are tech savvy.