RSS Feeds and my Stupidity

A few months ago, David Pogue wrote about basic tech tips everyone should know. I share his frustration–I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched someone use a computer, and said “You know–if you just type in “tsmacdonald” and then press <Ctrl><Enter>, it’ll go to “http://www.tsmacdonald.com”.” Or, “Instead of going to Google, why don’t you just use the little search bar in the top-right corner of your browser.”

And now I get to play the part of the fool.

I’ve long been frustrated by trying to track down RSS feeds on websites. Sometimes there’s a huge “Subscribe!” button, and I’m fine. Sometimes there’s a little RSS logo or “Subscribe” text lurking somewhere, and it’s harder to find (I actually picked up the habit of doing <Ctrl><F><”Subscribe”> to see if I could find it faster). And sometimes I just can’t find it, period. A friend of a friend has a webcomic, and I ended up asking for a link to the RSS feed on the Facebook fan page.

Enter Firefox.

If a page has a feed, Firefox shows the RSS logo in the far right part of the address bar. Click on it, and you’re taken to Firefox’s standard subscription page, where you can pick your favorite feedreader. No pain, no frustration, and a minimum of time.