RSS usability sucks

Could we stop talking about “RSS” or “XML” and speak in terms that normal people can be expected to understand?

Scoble, I took a look at Molly’s blog and yours and I’ve gotta to say that it’s much easier to subscribe to her’s than yours.

http://www.kbcafe.com/rss/?guid=20051030180645

Maybe a button with the word FEED will do.

Maybe a button with the word FEED will do.

Jeremy: do you call your DVD player a “device that plays movies on physical round-disk-shaped media?” Why not?

Randy: I wasn’t complaining about Molly’s blog. We were on another blog site when we got stuck while demonstrating RSS at the Blog Business Summit. Sorry for not making that clear.

Randy: I wasn’t complaining about Molly’s blog. We were on another blog site when we got stuck while demonstrating RSS at the Blog Business Summit. Sorry for not making that clear.

A VCR isn’t a “VHS player” is it? Is your “web browser” actually a “HTML navigator” or a “HTTP communicator”?

See, you cam come up with examples that do and don’t suport your point. But why must we make the acronym stew even thicker? Where will this insanity stop?

This ia about subscribeing to web sites. Period. Plain and simple.

I think the biggest usability issue with RSS feeds ins’t “how do I figure out the URL”, but “what do I do with the URL”. Clicking on the link – which is what my mom would do – doesn’t work. At best you get a page of XML, which looks like junk to my Mom.

The best thing right now is that most readers will “auto discover” the feed URL, given the website URL. So you can drag the URL from the browser location field into the reader’s location field, and poof, you’re subscribed. That works with SharpReader most of the time.

However the better thing would be if clicking on the link accomplished this. The MIME type of an RSS feed should cause the browser to launch your RSS reader. Or maybe we need a different transport indicator, like rss://domain/url instead of http://domain/url, so that the browser knows what to do when a feed link is clicked.

I totally agree that the usability of feed discover and subscription is a big reason why RSS feeds are not used widely by more people.

I think the biggest usability issue with RSS feeds ins’t “how do I figure out the URL”, but “what do I do with the URL”. Clicking on the link – which is what my mom would do – doesn’t work. At best you get a page of XML, which looks like junk to my Mom.

The best thing right now is that most readers will “auto discover” the feed URL, given the website URL. So you can drag the URL from the browser location field into the reader’s location field, and poof, you’re subscribed. That works with SharpReader most of the time.

However the better thing would be if clicking on the link accomplished this. The MIME type of an RSS feed should cause the browser to launch your RSS reader. Or maybe we need a different transport indicator, like rss://domain/url instead of http://domain/url, so that the browser knows what to do when a feed link is clicked.

I totally agree that the usability of feed discover and subscription is a big reason why RSS feeds are not used widely by more people.

Robert we had a great discussion on my site a few weeks ago following Dave Winer’s suggestion of a Subscribe button.

What we came up with is an orange Subscribe and a Help button alongside it – I think it works quite well. Have a look at the buttons in this post – they are free to copy, as is the help text.

Robert: Ideally, there wouldn’t be an RSS icon or link of any kind on a page… feeds should be found via autodiscovery, and presented to the user on request.

Developing a standard for RSS is crucial. Preferably a solution which allowed people to click on an RSS feed button (whatever it says on it) which would automatically add it to that users list of feeds which would in turn be used by any/all aggregators that user employs.

But for now RSS usability definitely sucks. I looked into it quite recently, knowing nothing about it, but wanting to provide my users with the best possible solution. I found that IMHO there are four steps to providing somewhat usable RSS feeds:

1. Use a (white on orange) ‘SUBSCRIBE’ button.
2. Include a help button & help page.
3. Include a link to your feed in the head of your html (for autodiscovery).
4. Style your feed.

Of course how you implement these four steps will also determine how user friendly it ends up.

Anyone know offhand can blogger users style their own feeds without using feedburner or another third party solution?

Developing a standard for RSS is crucial. Preferably a solution which allowed people to click on an RSS feed button (whatever it says on it) which would automatically add it to that users list of feeds which would in turn be used by any/all aggregators that user employs.

But for now RSS usability definitely sucks. I looked into it quite recently, knowing nothing about it, but wanting to provide my users with the best possible solution. I found that IMHO there are four steps to providing somewhat usable RSS feeds:

1. Use a (white on orange) ‘SUBSCRIBE’ button.
2. Include a help button & help page.
3. Include a link to your feed in the head of your html (for autodiscovery).
4. Style your feed.

Of course how you implement these four steps will also determine how user friendly it ends up.

Anyone know offhand can blogger users style their own feeds without using feedburner or another third party solution?

Robert,

I know your Mom is your top priority right now, as it should be. It’s got to be very difficult and I extend my sympathies to you and your family.

The issue of RSS usability is indeed a big one. I’ve researched it for months and have just finished development of feedpass.com, a new tool for RSS publishers, bloggers, etc. that simplifies much of the usability issue. It’s essentially a landing page for RSS feeds, allowing content owners to use a single button that gives readers an array of choices for subscription and walks them through the process with ease. It doesn’t modify the feed in any way, so it’s compatible with Feedburner and all other feed management tools.

In addition, the site creates a monetization program that benefits both content publishers and anyone who wants to create a feedpass page link to the feed. In fact, the content owner can earn money from every person that links to his feed with a feedpass. It’s very cool.

If you get a chance, I’d love your opinion on it.

Jim