Comparing how IE, Firefox and Chrome handle RSS Feeds
I typically use Internet Explorer for most of my browsing needs. I have always found that IE handles RSS feeds better then most of the other browsers. The biggest let down is from Google’s Chrome believe it or not!
FAIL Grade
Google chrome get’s a fail because it can not detect an RSS feed. I would have hoped if the browser can’t understand it, at least program the darn browser to add the feed to your Google “IG” account with one or two clicks.
Pass Grade
Firefox does a good job at displaying the data of the RSS feed. It however can not get top marks because although it does know how to display the output it doesn’t understand the META text of the categories from the RSS feed. I actually like the look of the HTML layout in Firefox the best but it does have rendering issues if you make the window too small.
Gold Standard
Internet Explorer might not have the speediest javascript engine out there, but it does in my opinion understand RSS feeds the best. Just look. It knows that my blog limits 10 posts to the RSS feed. It also understands that I have different categories in each on of my posts. Even if make the window really narrow the contents are not effected the way they are in Firefox.
I’m surprised to agree. I have avoided Google because I simply don’t trust the company, so I can only speak about IE and Firefox.
I currently use IE, and I’m quite disappointed with its feed reader. For example, it doesn’t mark all copies of the same article read if it appears in multiple different feeds from the same site. And frequently the feed database becomes corrupted such that feeds cannot be updated, or if they are updated they do not bold (or unbold) correctly in the Feeds list. And the feed view doesn’t display embedded flash objects, or even placeholders for such objects. And once the feed update process begins in the background, there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to kill it off and regain control over your internet connection.
So I thought I would try out Firefox, because “everyone” seems to rave about this browser. Exporting my feed list was a snap, but importing it into Firefox took forever (several minutes). I have no idea what was taking so long. But the problem I run into is that Firefox (even with an add-in like Sage) doesn’t appear to save any state, so you can never really be sure which articles you’ve read or not read, if you restart Firefox. It’s simply missing any of the common-sense features to control frequency of updates, marking all as read, counting how many articles are new, etc. etc. etc. I’m really shocked that a product would even be released to the public at all in this state, becaue it’s simply not finished (read: not started).
In 2010, for a browser to not have a built-in feed reader is just absurd. I would never browse the web any other way. So I’m sticking with IE.