IE7 Vs. Firefox 2.0: IE7 raises the bar for RSS support

Internet Explorer 7 is out now. IE7 not only joins Firefox in displaying RSS, it beats it in terms of user-friendliness - according to a recent article. And, after seeing the screenshots of IE 7 RSS rendering - and having used Firefox for a couple of years - I have to agree.

IE7 Vs. Firefox 2.0: Why This Browser Battle Matters To Businesses - News by InformationWeek:

Both browsers will have built-in RSS readers, but Microsoft's performs better by rendering feeds in a more user-friendly way, including filtering by category, showing time stamps on articles, and looking more like Web pages. Outlook 2007 will use the IE7 RSS platform to share, for example, calendar feeds.

The RSS-based Live Bookmarks features was ironically, not much more than a tip of the hat to the wildly popular file format. It is ironic because the Netscape adopted the file format about a decade ago - and Netscape later spun off its browser division as Mozilla.

It will be good to see how the RSS support in Firefox improves with the release of Firefox 3 in May 2007.

I expect support/enthusiasm for RSS will swell at more corporate sites and intranets during the next couple quarters.

It is already popular at social web sites, merchant sites, news sites, and web portals.

But there is nothing particular to these applications in RSS, which is a file format by the way - not a protocol. A website can deliver RSS files (feeds) using whatever protocol they like, just by specifying it in the URL; the same way they do with HTML files.

Usually, RSS and HTML are served with the HTTP protocol - but they do not have to be.

Another possible misconception is that RSS cannot be secured. That is not true at all.

HTTP security mechanisms like HTTP Authentication, Cookies, HTTPS, and SSL work fine with RSS files.

So there is nothing to say that RSS files have to be any more public - or any less secure or private - than HTML files, images, etc.

I think web-based applications will start publishing the results of searches on search/query/list pages wth RSS feeds. It is no big deal to do, nor is it innefficient.

They can be generated on the fly using standard servlet/JSP/ASP techniques, generated periodically, cached, or all of the above.

Users can then aggregate the feeds using their browser, a desktop based client application, or (if such things are available yet) a behind-the-firewall web-based aggregator stored/shared soley on the corporate Intranet.

Lots of work on computers in offices is status and event driven. RSS excels at organizing/sharing this information. Now, browsers are getting really good at displaying and using it.

RSS is a very simple file format. The only way to really understand it and what it can do is look at examples, read the specs, see what desktop and web applications are doing with it - and try it out yourself.

Users will be really empowered when they can pull down their work from a handful of feeds, aggregate them, custom filter/search them, and use that output to drive their workaday tasks. In other words, giving them better hunting and organizing tools - without spending money for custom software development or making them stop using web-tools that they are familiar with and like.

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