Apple is taking RSS feeds to the next level by allowing you to display them in a more meaningful way. In Apple’s brilliance, they realized that sometimes users need more than just a title to decide if they want to read the article. So I propose that Firefox take RSS feeds to another level:
I propose that Firefox (1.5 or 2.0) have the ability to display feeds in a format similar to Planet with the ability to do several things to modify the view:
- You should be able to categorize feeds based on custom names. So that you can (if you choose) put all your tech feeds on one page, and all your news feeds on another page, blogs on another, etc. Perhaps even color code them, or give them icons (based on a collection of default icons).
- Based on the above, you should be able to display all, or break them up.
- Sort them based on date, feed, title, or any other attribute.
- Highlight new feeds you haven’t already read.
- Notifier to notify you when a feed is updated.
- Search RSS feeds.
- Ability to send link (open up default mail client with blurb, link, etc.).
- Themable via CSS for theme authors, though perhaps give the user the ability to override default colors (just a thought).
This would serve as a massive gain for Firefox. It gives users a whole new way of reading RSS feeds, finally they can sort, search, organize they way they wish to see them. It also makes the ideal start page. It’s visually pleasing, organized, and all content is of interest.
I’m envisioning something more like Planet, than Apple’s, with the ability to handle a fair number of feeds with ease. Being able to easily organize feeds is critical to this feature being successful. Easy to navigate, XHTML/JS based. Because the RSS feeds would be cached, the response time would be pretty much instant when searching, sorting, etc. Something online services can’t provide. Not to mention no need to signup, or look at ads.
Any thoughts on this? Any takers?