Want to have instant access to all the RSS feeds you have subscribed to, without having to login and check them out through Google Reader?  You can do this by mixing Google Reader with Firefox’s Live Bookmark feature.  Since Google Reader outputs your reading list in RSS – it is easy to create a place where you can keep up to date with the latest news, without even launch the Google Reader website. 

Here is how you do it.

First, you need to log into the Google Reader website, and then in the address bar – click on the RSS icon. That should take you to the RSS feed page for all your unread items in Google Reader  Now, select to Subscribe to that feed using "Live Bookmarks" like so…

Go ahead and hit the "Subscribe Now" button, and then save your new Live Bookmark to your bookmarks toolbar.

Now, you have all the items you have not read in Google Reader showing up there too.  This will not mark them as read in Google Reader, but it does give you a quick way to preview items inside of Firefox from your Google Reader account, and saves you a few mouse clicks too.

Hope you enjoyed this quick tip!  Let me know if you have any other creative ideas when it comes to getting the most out of the Live Bookmarks feature from within Firefox.

Need help watching your feed subscriptions in Google Reader? 

The Google Reader Watcher add-on for Firefox is here to help.  With this extension, you can be instantly notified when your favorite new source, blog or any other web site with an RSS feed is updated and ready to read in Google Reader. 

There is not a lot to  be said here.  Google Reader Watch (yes, the name does sound like it is having an argument with itself) simply checks your Google Reader for unread feeds and if you have, the plugin will display them on your browser’s status bar.

Now I usually only check my own Google Reader account once or twice a day.  However, if you want to stay on top of the latest updates this extension gets that job done.  For example, you could easily subscribe the your favorite Firefox blog, the greatest podcast about web hosting, and some guy named Mitch’s techie blog and find out all three were updated this morning.

You can pick up the Google Reader Watcher from the Firefox Add-ons web site.

Subscribe via RSS

All you have to do to subscribe to the RSS feed is click that orange icon in the Firefox address bar.

You will then be given many different options in which you can subscribe to the feed.  You can set it up as a Live Bookmark or you could use services like Google Reader, Bloglines and more to get instant access to all the Firefoxy goodness you will find here.

Subscribe via E-mail

To subscribe by e-mail, and get daily e-mail updates when a new post has been made – type your e-mail address into the empty text box at the top, and hit the “Subscribe!” button.

Once you do, a window will pop up asking you to type in a series of letters to verify you really want to subscribe.  once you do, click the “Complete Subscription Request” button and your all set.

It is all totally free, as I don’t charge you a dime (nor would I want to).  The only revenue I make from the site is from the Google ads your hopefully not blocking, to pay for the upkeep of the site.

Big thanks to the 7,000+ that are subscribing already and the many more who come in to check out the web site daily.  You ROCK!

You can also follow me and my projects on Twitter @mitchkeeler!

So there is your how to subscribe to Firefox Facts public service announcement.  I now return you to your regularly scheduled Firefox tips, tutorials and more – already in progress.

WebChunks is a Firefox 3′s implementation of Microsoft Web Slices.  It allows you to “follow” an area of a web page through a dedicated feed bookmarked in a new toolbar. Clicking on the toolbar entry shows the information related to your choice in a popup, without the need to open a complete web page.

Where would you use this in the real world?

Now the famous example of this is eBay.  Lets say you wanted to follow an item you were bidding on, but you only wanted to follow the box that had the actual auction information in it.  WebChunks allows you to just watch that section.  When the auction is over, delete it.

Still lost?  Don’t be worried,  I was too.  Check out the developer’s tutorial on how to use the WebChunks add-on for more information on the idea.  For me, this new feature is on the fence of being useful on one side and un-necessary on the other.

This add-on was a runner up in the Extend Firefox 3 contest.  Check out this past post to see some of the other winners.

One new extenion RSS feed reader that recently caught my eye was Beatnik. It promises to be a “simple but elegant news reader”. With a description like that whats not to love?

It is simple. If your looking for neat features and a “wiz bang” interface, this isn’t the extension for you. If you need a feed reader for a dozen feeds or so and you want it built into your browser, you might want to give Beatnik a shot.

Instead of throwing you up a bunch of random XML code they actually give you a pretty nice interface to learn from and use when clicking on that little orange subscription button you see on all the Web sites these days.

For an example, let’s use the RSS feed for Firefox Facts:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/firefoxfacts

Now when you launch that in Firefox, you will be given a clean easy to read interface. You can see all the latest links and summeries from Firefox Facts and at the top you will have a few subscription options. You can use one of the exteneral RSS feed readers on the list or you can choose to add it as a Live Bookmark.

What is a Live Bookmark? Here is how the Mozilla team describes it:

Whether it’s news from CNN and the BBC, or posts on your friend’s blog, the Web is updated continually. Firefox’s Live Bookmarks feature automatically keeps track of these updates for you, so you always know when new content has been added to your favorite sites. With Live Bookmarks, the content comes to you. Instead of constantly checking Web pages for changes and additions, a Live Bookmark delivers updates to you as soon as they are available.

Another way to gain access to a Web site’s RSS feed is to look for the little orange RSS icon in the address bar. Depending on what theme you use it might look a little different but when you click on it it should give you a few subscription options. If you select to add it as a live bookmark – it opens up the previously mentioned styled RSS feed.

There is one more RSS in Firefox option I’d like to share with you. To configure a few things about how Firefox handles RSS feeds navigate yourself to Menu > Tools > Options… and then click on the tab for “Feeds”. From here you can choose if you want to get a preview of the feed everytime you see an RSS feed in the browser or you can set it to automatically subscribe using the Live Bookmark system or any other RSS reader out there (both Online and Offline).

There is more than one way to skin a cat and there is more than one way to subscribe to your favorite RSS feeds in Firefox. For a few more subsciption options for Firefox Facts please check out the Subscription Links Web page at FirefoxFacts.com.

Firefox only: Google Reader is one of the best web-based feed readers out there, but it could stand a few adjustments. Greasemonkey scripters have come up with a few Google Reader user scripts that make some welcome GReader tweaks like maximizing the viewing area, skipping Google’s default subscribe mechanism, and adding keyboard shortcuts.

I downloaded it the minute I saw it and haven’t stopped using it yet. Can’t wait to see what they do with it in the future. Good work guys (and gals) at Lifehacker!

+ Download and Install the Better GReader Extension for Firefox!

My version of the script adds an overlayed check icon when you’re subscribed to at least one of the feeds that the site advertises via auto-discovery. This was made easy by a URL that Reader exports: http://www.google.com/reader/api/0/subscribed?s=feed/. It returns “true” or “false” depending on whether the current user (as determined by the Google Account cookie) is subscribed to the given feed.

+ Get the Greasemonkey Script!