Sage: Simple RSS for Firefox
Kris’ post about Safari got me thinking whether I should switch to Safari for my browsing. As I said in my comment, I love my Firefox extensions and add-ons too much to give them up. But Safari has a really neat RSS reader built right in to the browser. That alone might be reason enough to work Safari into my regular surfing rotation.
Then I thought, “Wait a minute. I’ll bet I can find an equally useful RSS reader for Firefox.” Duh. I hit the Firefox Add-ons page and started searching. The first few I tried were just awful. One was too simple and ugly. One was waaaaay too complex, slow, and hard to use.
I despaired of ever finding my RSS solution. All I want is to add feeds easily and read feeds quickly. I don’t need to bookmark these posts; we have delicious for that. I don’t need to share links with friends. And I don’t need all the other bells and whistles of full-service RSS readers.
Then I found Sage. The developers say, “It’s got a lot of what you need and not much of what you don’t.”
Sage is a light, fast RSS reader for people with a moderate number of feeds to keep track of (under 200, I’d say). Besides its simple drag-and-drop feed subscribing (really, you just drag the feed link to the sidebar to subscribe), my favorite feature is that it allows for easy customization via Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). That may sound technical and complex, but it’s as easy as downloading a CSS file from a page like this and telling Sage where to find that file on your hard drive. I chose Caprica Dusk, which sounds like a Designer Impostor Fragrance (remember those?) and makes the screen look like this:
If you’re like me (lazy), you don’t like leaving the browser to do anything. You also forget to read your RSS feeds if they’re not integrated into your daily browsing routine. Sage solves the RSS problem for me nicely. It doesn’t do everything, but it does everything I need it to do.
Sage is also a great solution for people browsing RSS on netbooks, as it devotes a huge portion of the screen to the item being read.
Give it a try and tell me what you think.
Switching from Firefox to Safari
This week Apple rolled out a new version of Safari, its web browser for Mac and PC. They’re calling it the “World’s Fastest Browser.” For me, the browser is the most used program on my computer, so you’ll understand the gravity of this decision: I’m switching from Firefox to Safari for all my web browsing.
As you may know, BookFool.com is a Mac-based business. For the book industry, this is basically unheard of. But we’re not blind followers and fanboys. Before I made the switch official, I put the new Safari through its paces, and I must say it does seem quicker than other browsers. It definitely gives me a fluid, clean browsing experience.
I’ve always liked Safari, but there were two huge reasons that I stuck with Firefox:
- Safari’s Find Feature (Command +F or Edit/Find) would not search inside non-editable text boxes. We ship thousands of orders per week from our browsers, and we sometimes need to find orders based on customer name or zip-code. The new Safari can search inside these boxes and does so with style:
- It always drove me nuts that clicking a link in Safari opened a new window instead of just a new tab. Sure you can hold Command while clicking to pop links into new tabs, but I don’t want to do that! This was a barrier to full-time Safari use until I found this fix at MacTips.org that cleared the path to new-tab bliss.
If you gave up on Safari in the past, the new version is definitely worth a second look. Be dazzled by the improved Find feature. And marvel at its slick wall of Top Sites.
Oh, and did I mention it’s fast?
