Internet Explorer 7 and RSS feeds
If you visit Geekzone a lot you probably read about our Geekzone RSS feeds before. If not, go on, read the article. I also recommend you read How to explain RSS the Oprah way, a very easy-to-read article explaining RSS feeds.
Back to Internet Explorer 7, then... One of the new features on this browser is the built-in RSS feed client. It's very easy to use, and you can start using RSS feeds without a specific program (the so called feed readers). Internet Explorer 7 will do everything for you. Here's is how...
Most websites these days have a feature called feed discovery. It means that a web browser will automatically identify what RSS feeds are associated with that specific website. On Internet Explorer this is done through an orange icon in the toolbar. When a RSS feed is identified you will see a start on the top right corner of the icon, like this one:
Click the arrow next to this icon and you will see a list of feeds on that website:
Things to mention here:
- enter a text in the box on the top right side and a filter will apply to that RSS feed, showing only the feeds with that word or text;
- change the order the feed entries are shown, by selecting Date or Title;
- filter the RSS feed entries by category, by clicking on any of the categories present on the list.
If you like the content of the feed, you can Subscribe to it by clicking Subscribe to this feed. This will give you a dialog to add this RSS feed to a list that will be quickly accessible through Internet Explorer 7:
Once you have added one or more feeds to your watching list, you can keep an eye on new and update stories by looking at the Favorites Center, in the Feeds list. You access the Favorites Center by clicking the big yellow star on the left of the tabs on Internet Explorer 7:
Because some feeds are not frequently updated you can right-click each one and change their properties, fine-tuning the system, saving your bandwidth and getting the right mix of information:
Easy? Now that you have a collection of RSS feeds, you just need to keep an eye on their content, and when you see something interesting just click on the headline and your browser will open the page corresponding to that content.
What's more interesting here though is that Internet Explorer 7 uses the same RSS repository used by new programs coming out soon, such as Microsoft Outlook 2007 and Windows Live Mail Desktop. This means that RSS feeds you subscribe through Internet Explorer 7 are automatically available through those other programs. Neat, right?
Now go on, subscribe to some RSS feeds and be more efficient when collecting your daily dosis of information. Just that you know, I currently have about 300 feeds in my collection.
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Comment by welliegeek, on 21-Oct-2006 13:46
downloaded IE7 the day it was released and, to be frank, I'm still unsure about it. A medium term Firefox user due to the insecurities and dodgy way IE handles "standards" I will be using it part time to see how it goes.
I must admit though it is nice to see MS put some effort into IE after years of neglect.
Comment by centaurianz, on 22-Oct-2006 15:22
I would've like to have seen Microsoft "borrow" these features:
User management of web site logins and passwords
'Find' is integrated into the browser (i.e. not the floating input box)
Management of Favourites and Feeds could be better
I like Firefox's 'View Page Info' also.
Comment by jc, on 11-Feb-2007 09:21
Mauricio, it's great that IE has finally gotten on board, but in the RSS area, they still seem to lag behind Firefox. Firefox's "live bookmarks" feature is a fantastic way to integrate RSS directly into your browser (and keeps you only one click away from the content of the feed). IE7 puts you at least 2 or more clicks away.
Also, the "live titles" feature of Firefox just blows me away. Especially considering the Firefox 3 will likely have graphical live titles (imagine a live bar graph or pie chart). I created a short video tutorial that describes how to add feeds to IE7 (if you'll allow the post) here: http://usefulvideo.blogspot.com/2007/01/how-to-add-rss-feed-to-ie7.html
Comment by Alison, on 14-Apr-2007 23:07
Hi Mauricio,
I'm very happy to have your advice about rss feeds - simple, really, but I didn't know!
Best regards,
Alison.
Comment by Arun, on 12-Jun-2008 01:37
Hi,
I have an issue with the rss feed in IE7. The problem is like the order in which my feeds are displayed in firefox is not the same which is shown in IE7. The one which is showing in firefox is correct order and the same order i want to display in IE7 also. So, is there anyone who can tel me in how I can resolve this issue.
Thanks,
Arun.
Comment by Zac, on 11-Jun-2009 21:24
I've has so many issue with IE and designing webpages for clients around it, that i've advised all my clients to move away from it and start using Firefox or Chrome.
Comment by Purple Lattice, on 16-Jun-2011 03:07
Unfortunately ie7 is still widely used in corporate It environments therefore we still need to accomodate it when building web sites for now
Comment by hik, on 2-Nov-2011 22:29
Hi, could you please tell whther it's normal that the rss feed buttons stay orange, even if i have checked the site and their are no new items? i thought the beauty of the rss sytem was that you saw immediately whether there is anything new on the particular website by having the icon change from gray to orange
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Comment by juha, on 20-Oct-2006 17:06
The integrated RSS support is arguably the best thing about IE7.