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CyberNotes: Best Firefox Feed Readers

Posted in: CyberNotes, Features, Firefox Extensions, Freeware, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on October 31, 2007 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

One thing that the Firefox developers have stayed clear of thus far is implementing a full RSS feed reader into the browser. Firefox does have a built in system called Live Bookmarks that are supposed to compensate for needing a feed reader in the browser, but as many of you know it falls short.

When it comes to browsers having an integrated feed reader many of them leave users wanting more. Almost all of them lack the power, design, and usability that I love so much, except for one of them. Hands down Flock has the best built-in feed reader, and it far surpasses what any other browser has. You can quickly customize how you’re viewing the feeds, organize them with the intuitive sidebar, and much more.

Today we want to demonstrate the best feed readers for Firefox that don’t require any online services. Some of them are simple, and some of them are rather impressive. What it really boils down to, however, is how usable they are.

The first three listed below are more of the full featured readers, while the last three are toolbar marquees and scrollers. With each extension we provide a screenshot so that you can see what it looks like while being used, and you can click on the thumbnails for a full-size view.

Note: At the end I’ll announce the “winners”

–Beatnik (Homepage)–

Overview: If you’re looking for something that you can configure this is not your feed reader. It is a light weight feed reader that requires absolutely no additional work if you’re already using the built-in Firefox Live Bookmarks.

The Good:

The feed reader itself does not utilize the browser’s sidebar, which means you can still have your bookmarks sidebar open while viewing feeds
Automatically pulls in feeds from your Live Bookmarks making it an easy upgrade for all Live Bookmark users
Sidebar is resizable
Expandable/contractible feed items

The Bad:

Has absolutely no options to configure
Can’t organize feeds into folders
The only way to add feeds is by making a Live Bookmark
Can’t import feeds form an OPML file

–Wizz RSS Reader (Homepage)–

Overview: A slightly more extravagant feed reader that has many advanced management features. It doesn’t let you read the entire feed item from the reader though.

The Good:

Can import feeds from Live Bookmarks and OPML file
The reader can be put in the sidebar or popped out into a new window
Save items for quick access later on
Setup an email template for sending items to your friends

The Bad:

Does not let you preview the entire article, and instead takes you to the article’s website to read it
Can’t customize the interval at which the feeds are updated
Can be a bit cramped trying to do all your reading in the sidebar

–Sage (Homepage)–

Overview: Sage is nice because it displays the contents of feeds in a clean and intuitive manner. If you have hundreds of feeds to read this is the Firefox feed reader for you.

The Good:

You can manually have it refresh all of the feeds
Customizable stylesheets let you change how the contents of feeds are displayed
The feed subscriber shows you the last time a feed was updated
Two column reading of the news
Scales images to fit the width of the content area
Import feeds from OPML file
Search your feeds
Can organize the feeds into folders

The Bad:

Would be nice to switch between full feed views and short descriptions
Can’t customize the interval at which the feeds are updated

–infoRSS (Homepage)–

Overview: This extension puts a scrolling marquee in the Status Bar that shuffles through the news. It is extremely customizable, but there are so many different options that it can be overwhelming.

The Good:

Extremely customizable
Filter headlines for keywords
Create groups of feeds so that you can quickly switch between different types of news
Specify the update interval on a per-feed basis or change the default value
Report feature shows you how many items haven’t been read in each feed, last time the feed was updated, and more
Synchronize with FTP
The marquee can be moved from the Status Bar to a toolbar at the top

The Bad:

The number of options can be overwhelming for some people, and they aren’t very well organized
The marquee animation can be a bit choppy at times, so you might want to change it to a different type of animation

–RSS Ticker (Homepage)–

Overview: A superb marquee feed reader that has all the right options.

The Good:

Smooth marquee animation
Elegant article summary popup
Grabs all of your Live Bookmarks right away without any additional configuration
Customize the update interval
Choose the placement (below the Status Bar or below the Bookmarks Bar)
Feed enabling and disabling
Makes good use of the room

The Bad:

All feeds have to be Live bookmarks, although you can disable them on an individual basis
It always has to have its own toolbar to display feeds, which can occupy precious screen space

–Simple RSS Reader (Homepage)–

Overview: This is just a toolbar that cycles through the feeds that you specify. The configuration options are a little limited.

The Good:

Nice manager for adding/removing feeds
The toolbar is a nice condensed way to keep up with the news
Control buttons to move on to the next item, next feed, or restart the cycle

The Bad:

Takes awhile to go through a lot of feeds
Can’t import feeds
Can’t customize the interval at which the feeds are updated
Only shows one item at a time

–The Winners–

I’m a little disappointed by the quality of the feed reading options available for Firefox, but some were clearly better than others. For the more full featured feed readers (the first three in this article) I would have to say that Sage is the best. It has the right amount of features, and definitely feels like a feed reader. To my surprise, however, Beatnik comes in a very close second place. There is something about it’s simplicity that I really like.

When it comes to the marquee style feed readers (the latter three in the article) I would put RSS Ticker up on a pedestal above the others. It has smooth animations, an elegant interface, and a sufficient number of options. However, if your heart lies with customizability I would jump on the infoRSS bandwagon, because it is sure to make you drool!

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