The concept of RSS or newsfeeds in general seemed quite appealing to me the moment I first heard (or read?) about it. But I never managed to find a possibility of utilizing them in a way I liked. I tried standalone-readers like FeedReader, and since I am a FF-enthusiast, I tried Firefox extensions like Sage and Wizz, as well as scroll-readers like infoRSS and took a look at the FeedDemon, but none really seemed to satisfy my needs. I wanted a common view for all unread entries, sorted by date or anything, I wanted it to be lightweight, and I didn’t want it to be another program than my Firefox, so I eliminated all contestants pretty quick.
Luckily, I came across the small Brief Firefox extension which fulfilled all of my wishes. It’s lightweight, it’s a firefox extension, and it has the “unread”-folder as well as a nice and elaborate handling. It’s content-view is skinnable (though I have yet to come across a skin that suited me better than the original one), there are a handful of reasonable options, and it integrates with the Firefox-RSS-capabilities as well using it’s dynamic bookmarks system.
It’s just as the synopsis on the homepage says: “Brief is a light-weight feed reading extension for Firefox. Designed to be easy to use and streamlined, with exactly the right set of features.” – ’nuff said.
So if you happen to be in the market for RSS-Readers, make sure to check this one out.
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13 Responses to “Brief – RSS Reader for Firefox Dynamic Bookmarks”
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[...] I read the article about the Firefox add-on Brief which is an RSS reader for Firefox making use of Firefox’s dynamic bookmarks. I have never [...]
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[...] [via gHacks] [...]
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[...] Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Brief, an in-browser RSS reader for Firefox, adds a clean Google Reader-type feed reading interface to your browser, and makes Firefox’s default “Live Bookmarks” system far more useful. The stand-out feature for GReader users is the starring system that lets you tag posts for later viewing, but I also like the “X” boxes put on each post—instead of marking a post “read” and scrolling past it, you can actually remove it from your view. It’s a lot like Sage, but with a more robust set of features and customization. Brief is a free download and works wherever Firefox 2 and 3 beta do. Brief [via gHacks] [...]
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[...] Brief – RSS Reader for Firefox Dynamic Bookmarks [...]
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[...] the Firefox add-on brief a few days ago which is an add-on for Firefox that adds a very basic RSS Feed Reader to the browser. I have been using Netvibes before and decided to give Brief a try. I really liked [...]
it doesnt work with Firefox 3 beta 5 :(
Looks similar to Bloglines.
I use Brief every day. No better RSS Reader than Brief. Thanks for the great posts. Ghacks is #1 blog
After trying Sage and Wizz, I’ve actually become quite a fan of Google Reader. It does meet the criteria of running in firefox ;)
I use Brief as my main RSS reader as I like the integration in Firefox rather than having a separate reader. A couple of things that would make it better for me would be a “Show all Read” option as this would allow a search on all your read items. It’s so annoying trying to find a read article!. Also buttons to Mark as Read,(or Unread) and Delete at the bottom of the post would be useful. You can use the keyboard but I like to sit back and use the mouse when I read my feeds.
I reviewed Brief a while back if anyone is interested.
http://proreviewer.com/2008/04/02/brief-11-firefox-add-on-simple-but-very-effective-rss-reader/
Barry Cleave
Thanks for your comments!
Jason: I can confirm this, it didn’t work with my FF3b5 either and didn’t have the time to search a solution for this.
Barry: Finding a read article is indeed cumbersome, you’re better off searching it inside specific feeds or the original sites. Regarding the buttons at the bottom of feeds, I had the exact same idea a while back. Turned out, that it is not possible (by decree of the author), but you can still use the double-click to mark it as read.
Hi All,
Those of you looking for a solution FF3b5 could try here at the developers forum:
http://brief.mozdev.org/drupal/node/154
I found this the other day when I was trying to set up a Firefox Beta 3 Portable version to report on on my site but haven’t tried it yet.
I would appreciate that if anyone tries it they let me know if it works :)
Stefan, thanks for your comment to me.
Barry
I’ve tried brief, it slows firefox down very much if it gets too many feeds at once. I guess the google server can handle more :D
(I’ve got 120 feeds I think)
For firefox 3b5 support get the beta version
http://brief.mozdev.org/drupal/node/174