RSS Feeds
Brief Adds Lightweight Browsing to Live Bookmarks
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 7:00 AM on May 15, 2008
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 customisation. Brief is a free download and works wherever Firefox 2 and 3 beta do.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
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the menace
Posted 1:41 AM 15/5/08
It looks good but I'll have to wait until it works in Firefox 3 beta 5 or newer version.
the menace
the_boffin
Posted 2:55 AM 15/5/08
I wish I could use this, but alas i'm on Ubuntu Hardy with Firefox Beta 5, PLEASE GET SUPPORT FOR THIS!!!
the_boffin
alcyone
Posted 2:46 AM 15/5/08
Well, I must say that I still prefer Sage (BTW, which is now compatible with FF3b5, thanks to some guys [sage.blat.co.za] who brought it back to life after the official development was seemingly on hiatus for ages).
Brief would be better if it could integrate itself into the sidebar. And a sleeker display mode for the feed items would be more pratical in my opinion. Whats the point in using a feed reader if you could just as well open the actual web page. That's how it looks to me. The only difference to opening the bookmarks menu in the sidebar and opening them from that place is that Brief shows you if there's new content on the site or not. There's no small preview that shows you just the titles. You have the click on the live bookmark to see what's going on, resulting in the loading of something that's comparable to the actual site.
Sage does exactly the same as Brief, but it offers a list of the new feed items, plus the possibility of going directly to the web page without loading an additional display.
alcyone
benbenben3
Posted 2:37 AM 15/5/08
The best Firefox Extension out there. I use this every day, and I Highly recommend it for anyone using the not-so-great Google Reader, or netvibes.
This is highly customizable and really easy to read all of your feeds offline at your leisure.
5-star RSS/ATOM/JSON/XML reader (yes, it supports all media types - even mediaRSS).
benbenben3
benbenben3
Posted 2:28 AM 15/5/08
The best Firefox Extension out there. I use this every day, and I Highly recommend it for anyone using the not-so-great Google Reader, or netvibes.
This is highly customizable and really easy to read all of your feeds offline at your leisure.
5-star RSS/ATOM/JSON/XML reader (yes, it supports all media types - even mediaRSS).
benbenben3
DWiner
Posted 2:20 AM 15/5/08
After trying all sorts of feed readers, I've finally freezed on BRIEF. I have been using BRIEF for a while now. I think it is the best feed reader for FF users...offers customization and is far better than SAGE.
DWiner
mimeryme
Posted 6:41 AM 15/5/08
Does Brief allow for synchronization? Since I started using Google Reader I really enjoy the fact that I can pick up reading my feeds on whatever computer that has an internet connection.
mimeryme
bnosach
Posted 6:39 AM 15/5/08
I cannot even add feeds this "highly customizable rss reader" . I just spent 10 min trying to figure out how to do this, but couldn't.
bnosach
jfty.009260
Posted 3:21 PM 15/5/08
I've already tried using this for about two times, but I still feel that it's a bit clunkier than Newsfox. It looks better, I'll give Brief that, but then I can see more stuff in Newsfox.
jfty.009260