RSS for Dummies, Safari Style
November 27th, 2007
Check out my blog on Safari: (made possible by browsershots.org, thanks Alex!)
See the little blue “RSS” icon? That’s fascinating, because my blog does not have RSS.
Why not use the feed icon like everybody else?
Calling my Atom feed “RSS” is just plain dumb.
> Calling my Atom feed “RSS” is just plain dumb.
It’s not dumb at all… in fact it’s very smart that they made the decision that causes the least amount of confusion to most people.
Most people online don’t know what an Atom Feed is. Hell, most people don’t even know what RSS is! But at least all the major media groups are trying to educate them.
Since Atom accomplishes the same thing, there is no point in trying to re-educate everybody. You risk alienating everybody by making it a techie thing.
In fact, I’d almost suggest that you remove the word “Atom” altogether and just go with “feed”. Anyone who actually needs to parse the feeds will soon discover they are atoms from the headers (and most likely thank you!)… and everyone else will know by the button what it will accomplish for them.
Well, http://www.macspecialist.org/content/articles/lets_hold_hands/ helps…. But yes, the use of the RSS text is confusing. But then then the RSS icon isn’t informative to many users. It’s a tricky call; use a generic if misleading text icon, or use an accurate but low information graphic.
oh… and Mozilla had applied for a Trademark on the icon when Safari first implemented RSS
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=78836825
I agree they should use the icon now that the registration has been abandoned.