Today, the Firefox feed icon got promiscuous ;-)
A while back, a Microsoft team was discussing at their blog what kind of visual indicator makes the most sense for representing feeds in the browser. Apparently, some of the RSS folks criticized them for not using that horrible little "RSS" orange rectangle icon.
I think this is a fine solution and helps further a major Firefox goal: to reduce the confusion and complexity of today's web so that Regular People can get more out it without having to become geeks like us :-)
Something as small as a name or icon choice can make a big difference in how approachable a new feature is. I'm encouraged that we're further distancing browsers from the awful "RSS" as a feature name and icon identifyer. We don't call web pages "HTML+CSS+JavaScript Pages" and we don't identify them in the browser using little icons containing "HTML" and "CSS" acronyms; We shouldn't do it for feeds either.
Posted by: Anonymous | December 14, 2005 4:52 PM
Applause to both companies! :)
Posted by: Paul | December 14, 2005 6:02 PM
I kind of miss the ASS reader asa, hopefully opera pulls through the ASS and uses the icon instead too.
Posted by: insomnaic | December 14, 2005 6:50 PM
Sensational news.
I love the orange. It stands out in pretty much every colour scheme which is exactly what is required to draw people's attention to a new feature that really doesn't have an otherwise obvious 'face'.
I saw the so-called ASS icon many times and never thought it said ASS but then again I am a web developer, so RSS was meaningful to me.
The current icon makes sense in that it's actually an icon, not a little box of coloured text.
Congratulations to Microsoft. Although they are following many Fx innovations I am completely astounded they have seen sense in this case.
Now we can hassle crApple and Opera to do the same, though both browsers are irrelevant in market share terms.
A victory for the user in amongst all the boring macho techno wars.
Woohooo!
Posted by: pd | December 15, 2005 2:51 AM
"A victory for the user in amongst all the boring macho techno wars."
Well put. :-)
Posted by: David Naylor | December 15, 2005 3:20 AM
Way, way OT. I had to show this to someone who would understand. http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=5652177&viewreplies=true
Posted by: Sean J | December 15, 2005 4:18 AM
Thats sweet. Neowin.net has also used the Firefox RSS feed icon for a long time.
Posted by: kurt | December 15, 2005 4:24 AM
The newbie question: So where can I find this Firefox RSS feed .ico resource, which has the various size formats?
Posted by: Jonathan Stanley | December 15, 2005 5:13 AM
Was it discussed for what protocols will the icon be allowed? Could it be used for for their proposed two way RSS?
Posted by: Percy | December 15, 2005 5:44 AM
I'm glad you and the MSIE team are aiming for a common icon for this, though I'm not convinced this one makes the most sense.
What symbolism is it reaching to convey?
To me it's far too much like the ones typically used for sound or volume. Why won't people assume it means that's a link to a sound file of some sort?
fwiw, I agree that a general feed symbol is better than explicitly saying "RSS" or "Atom" or whatever. On that point we're in complete agreement.
Posted by: Jeff Wilkinson | December 15, 2005 8:51 AM
Personally, I think having it say 'RSS' is far more useful to the end user. Look at this way. If you've never heard of RSS before, a little orange icon or an 'icon' that says RSS are going be just as meaningless in your eyes. However, you can hop on over to the search engine of your choice and punch in RSS and find out what it is. Good luck deciphering a symbol.
Posted by: Six of One | December 16, 2005 10:03 AM
I spent a year or two as a small child learning to read words that I had never seen before. I don't think I'll ever acquire that skill for computer ikons.
As for a meaningful descriptive term, I suggest they call it "George" or "Throckmorton", which, in terms of clarity, would be about average for the computer industry.
Posted by: AnotherGuest. | December 19, 2005 9:18 AM
Excellent news!
I suspect that Dave Winer will either have a bone to pick or he'll realize that RSS is such a cryptic acronym for end users.