Live Bookmarks - Firefox

This article explains how to access RSS feeds in Firefox using the built-in "Live Bookmarks" feature.

RSS feeds

Some web sites post lots of new articles or updates and provide an easy way to keep track of them through RSS feeds. While you can always visit your bookmarked sites to see the latest articles, it's sometimes more convenient to have new stories sent to you automatically in an RSS feed. You can get the latest information that interests you this way, whether it's new headlines from Yahoo News's Business section, the latest entries from your favorite blog, or even news updates from mozillaZine.

If you are browsing a web site that has an available RSS feed, this icon: http://www.mozilla.org/images/livemarks16.png will appear at the right side of the Location Bar (or at the bottom-right of the browser window if you are using Firefox 1.0.x.)

Subscribing to feeds using Live Bookmarks

Firefox lets you subscribe to RSS feeds using "Live Bookmarks", a feature of the Bookmarks Manager that lets you save an RSS feed link to your bookmarks and optionally display the link on the Bookmarks toolbar. Your default Firefox bookmarks include one such RSS feed, the "Latest Headlines" feed, as shown in the screen capture here.

Firefox 2

In Firefox 2 you can choose different options for subscribing to RSS feeds, including "Live Bookmarks", based on your selections under "Tools -> Options -> Feeds":

• Show me a preview and ask me which Feed Reader to use. If this option is selected, you will be presented with a preview of the RSS feed contents and a choice of using "Live Bookmarks", some web-based readers or your own application.
• Subscribe to the feed using: Select this option and choose "Live Bookmarks" if you always want to subscribe to feeds using "Live Bookmarks".

How to add a Live Bookmark

When you are on a web page that an RSS feed is available:

• Click the icon http://www.mozilla.org/images/livemarks16.png at the right side of the Location Bar (you may need to select a title - some sites have more than one).
• The "Add Live Bookmark" dialog will appear. Modify the name and "Create in" location, if you wish.
• Click "OK".

You will see the Live Bookmark displayed in your Bookmarks menu or on your Bookmarks Toolbar, depending on where you created it, under which all the available articles for that site will be displayed.

Manually adding a Live Bookmark

If a site doesn't display the RSS icon in the Firefox Location Bar, it may still have an available RSS feed that you can manually add as a Live Bookmark. If you see a small orange icon with "RSS", "RDF" or "Atom" on the web page, then that icon will link to the site's RSS feed. To manually add a Live Bookmark:

• Copy the RSS link address.
• Go to "Bookmarks -> Manage Bookmarks" (or "Organize Bookmarks in Firefox 2) to open the Bookmarks Manager.
• Select the "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder" or other folder where you want the Live Bookmark created.
• Click "File -> New Live Bookmark"
• Type in a name and type or paste in the RSS feed location you copied earlier.
• Click OK.

See also

RSS basics (Thunderbird)