I've just started playing with Google Chrome, Google's new browser. Its strengths are impressive, but I was disappointed to see no support, as yet, for reading RSS feeds. They display as text, with all tags stripped out, and no semblance of readability. As an example, here's RSS4Lib's RSS 2.0 feed:
Given that Google already has a way to display RSS feeds on a web page, it seems odd to me that it didn't make its way into the first public beta of Chrome. Even the iPhone version of Safari (which similarly does not include a built-in RSS reader) redirects RSS feeds to a web page, hosted by Apple, that renders the feed as an HTML page. For an example that only works from an iPhone (or if you can set your browser's user-agent string to "iPhone") see Apple's rendering of the RSS4Lib feed.
I'm hopeful that a forthcoming release of Chrome will include some capability to read display RSS feeds within the browser.
Update, 16 December 2008. Google Chrome came out of beta on December 11, 2008, without RSS support. See Google Chrome: Out of Beta, Still No RSS.
Comments (4)
Yeah, I can't believe it is not there - what with the prevalence of RSS on the web now.
Firefox's RSS live bookmarks were the best thing that ever happened to browsers!
Why Google! Whhhhyyyyyy?!
Posted by Toby Ricketts | September 4, 2008 5:18 PM
Posted on September 4, 2008 17:18
YEAH! I was also very angry when I found out this issue! Do you know of any other kind of alerts that chrome supports?
Posted by Miguel | September 29, 2008 9:05 PM
Posted on September 29, 2008 21:05
As far as I know, Chrome doesn't do any alerting at all... But I'd be happy to be proven wrong.
Posted by Ken Varnum![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.rss4lib.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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September 29, 2008 9:28 PM
Posted on September 29, 2008 21:28
I can understand the lack of feed support immediately - though it does mean few will adopt Chrome as their sole browser, needing IE for feeds - then again their feed widgets may be outside the browser (from Vista this will be increasingly common).
What REALLY amazed me though was the lack of the google toolbar autofill functionality in Chrome!
Maybe these are just the prices to pay for an exceptionally clean and lightweight browser though? It's either that or a product of speedy (beta-ish) release.
Posted by Paul | September 30, 2008 6:51 AM
Posted on September 30, 2008 06:51