Revive Livemarks (RSS Subscriptions) for Modern Browser Syncing.

[MintMain21]

While largely forgotten by mainstream internet users, RSS feeds and RSS subscriptions are still supported to this day, and on Firefox there exist extensions like FeedBro and Livemarks to support RSS subscribing years after Firefox dumped native support.

The only problem with these extensions is that they offer no means to sync feeds across multiple devices through Firefox Sync. In the case of Livemarks (itself based on Firefox's old native implementation), the reason ultimately comes down to the way Bookmarks are tagged, as Livemarks saves RSS feeds as Bookmarks, but can only update those feeds when the original device is active (IE: the device the initial feeds subscription was made on). https://github.com/nt1m/livemarks/issues/22

I propose two solutions to this:
1. Update either Bookmarking tags or Extension Bookmark permissions to enable Livemark syncing across multiple devices

2. Implement a new native RSS Reader solution that could sync feeds across multiple devices (that is, one made with Firefox Sync in mind).

It is worth noting that nearly every modern web browser has some kind of "news feed" feature that allows for updated news articles on the new tab page. On Firefox currently, the equivalent is "Pocket" integration, wherein popular Pocket articles are shared on the new tab page. This could be incorporated into a native RSS reader, wherin Pocket is the default source but users are encouraged to subscribe to additional sources as they browse. Alternatively, Pocket itself could be reworked as both a "Read-It-Later" service and a RSS Reader, and could be a source of revenue for Firefox.

Update: With the news that Thunderbird will adopt K-9 Mail as it's Mobile Client with the potential to sync more than just emails between devices, Thunderbird's native RSS Reader could also be an opprotunity to sync RSS Feeds with a Mozilla Account.

[andy-drew]

The second solution is the best. 💪👏

[Ponda]

I agree second proposition is the best, unlikely I don’t think this will happen. An alternative solution would be to add Firefox Sync to Thunderbird and use it to sync articles between devices. This solution is less preferable to the two you mentioned, as Firefox bookmarks are accessible on mobile devices and it offers better tracking protection (which includes extensions). Plus I don’t think Mozilla has anything to say about Thunderbird development after it abandoned the project.

It is also worth mentioning that RSS/Atom feeds are open standards and unbiased, keeping users up to date with the news without closing them in s filter bubble or depending on the big tech companies. It is exactly the solution Mozilla should support. I’m quite confident this technology would be way more popular if only people knew it exists.

[Tannim]

As you know, some sites offer to receive notifications and we usually just block all notifications.

Perhaps there is an idea to create some separate place where all these notifications will be accumulated, and they can be viewed later.

Or, revive something like an RSS feed.

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[Nich]

Firefox used to have a built in RSS Feed feature, nowadays this feature is a must! Now rss has been implemented by Vivaldi, and soon rss will appear in chrome and brave, we ask you to return RSS!

[wannaphong]

Hello! I want to RSS reader return to Firefox. I know some web browser will have RSS reader. (You know what is web browser ), so I think it is the time for return to Firefox. I missing old time of RSS reader in Firefox.

[JBIngram]

firefox sync is limited to 100ko I think. So a way through would be to sync RSS subscription list only. That would be enough for a file containing a long list of RSS subscriptions. Then, Mozilla should provide the library to be included into any type of free opensource RSS feed reader. 

[JBIngram]

I think firefox sync is limited to 100ko. So a way through would be to only sync the RSS feed list. 100ko is enough for a very long list. Then Mozilla could provide the applet/library to be implemented for setting sync into any open source/free RSS feed reader software