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What Is RSS and How to Use It for News in Firefox

#firefox #productivity #javascript #webextensions

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a standard web format that lets you subscribe to a website's content and receive new posts automatically. Most major news sites, blogs, and podcasts publish RSS feeds.

Here is how RSS works and how to use it in Firefox.

What RSS does

A website with an RSS feed publishes a machine-readable file (usually at /feed or /rss) that lists recent content with titles, dates, and summaries.

An RSS reader subscribes to these files. When you open the reader, it fetches all your subscribed feeds and shows the latest content in one place.

The key benefit: you read content from dozens of sources in one view, without visiting each site individually, without algorithmic curation, and without ads on the feed itself.

Finding RSS feeds

Most news sites have RSS feeds, though they are not always prominently linked. Try these approaches:

  1. Add /feed or /rss to a site's URL (e.g., https://example.com/feed)
  2. Right-click the page in Firefox → View Page Source → search for rss or atom
  3. Check the site's footer for an RSS icon or link

Feedly and other RSS aggregators also have feed-finding tools.

News Widget Dashboard for Firefox

News Widget Dashboard is a Firefox extension that puts an RSS reader on the new tab.

How to use it:

  1. Install the extension
  2. Open a new tab
  3. Click "Add feed" and paste an RSS feed URL
  4. Headlines from that feed appear immediately

You can add multiple feeds. Headlines from all subscribed feeds appear together, sorted by date.

Suggested RSS feeds by category

General news: BBC (http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml), Reuters, AP News
Tech: TechCrunch, Ars Technica, Hacker News (via https://news.ycombinator.com/rss)
Local news: Most local newspapers publish RSS feeds
Niche: Any blog or Substack you follow likely has an RSS feed

Why RSS instead of social media for news

  • No algorithm deciding what you see
  • No ads on the feed
  • You choose exactly which sources you follow
  • Content appears chronologically, not ranked by engagement

For anyone who wants to stay current in a specific domain without algorithm-driven distraction, RSS is a significantly cleaner tool than a social feed.

Install News Widget Dashboard for Firefox

News Widget Dashboard is one of 11 Firefox extensions I built — see the full series.

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