The Mozilla website describes live bookmarks as "a new technology in Firefox that lets you view RSS news and blog headlines in the bookmarks toolbar or bookmarks menu."  The bottom line is that Firefox now includes a simple, built-in RSS newsreader.

This is an important step toward mainstream RSS adoption.  Why?  It reduces friction.

Until now, if a person wanted to track web site changes using RSS, he or she needed to:

• install an RSS newsreader
  • friction: which newsreader?
  • friction: newsreader cost (possibly)
  • friction: software installation and learning curve
• subscribe to RSS feeds for visited websites
  • friction: locate RSS feed for website (some newsreaders help here, but many do not)
  • friction: leave browsing environment to subscribe to feed in newsreader (some newsreaders allow you to do this from the browser, but many do not)
• run the newsreader application to monitor feed subscriptions
  • friction: requires a behavioral change (i.e., monitoring your favorite websites with something other than your web browser)

This process is not rocket science, but it can be daunting for non-technical people.

Now, consider the process for using Firefox live bookmarks:

• browse the Web with your a web browser (i.e., Firefox)
• when visiting a site you want to track, click the icon in the Firefox status bar (see screenshot)

My Mom can do that.

In an upcoming Firefox release, the icon won't even say "RSS"—it will simply be an orange icon with a radar-looking image.  In other words, it won't be long before users—non-technical users—are using RSS to monitor what's new in their favorite sites without knowing they are using RSS!

Are live bookmarks the end-all?  Nope.  The built-in reader functionality is very basic.  There is plenty of room for improvement and there are plenty of commercial newsreaders that run circles around the live bookmark functionality.  I won't be giving up NewsGator any time soon (for many reasons).  But that's not the point.  What's important is live bookmarks allows hundreds of millions of non-technical web surfers to easily use RSS, even if they don't realize they are using it.

The RSS Adoption Train is picking up steam!