Mozilla will remove RSS support from Firefox, starting with version 64, which is scheduled for December this year. From then, RSS feeds will need to be handled by external add-ons. Earlier this year, Mozilla already announced it would remove the built-in RSS reader and live bookmarks feature from Firefox. According to the browser developer this was done “after careful consideration”.
Firefox developer Gijs Kruitbosch explains in a blog that Mozilla has decided to remove RSS from the browser as it was no longer sustainable, “while we still believe in RSS and support the goals of open, inter operable formats on the Web, we strongly believe that the best way to meet the needs of RSS and its users is via WebExtensions.”
WebExtensions are how Firefox add-ins are call nowadays and according to Kruitbosch they are better suited to display RSS feed, instead of having it as a core function of the browser. That's mainly because the maintenance, performance and security costs of the feed preview and subscription features are significant.
Together with RSS, also the live bookmarks feature will disappear from Firefox. These bookmarks allow users to subscribe to RSS feeds which then appear as folders in the bookmarks toolbar or menu.
“As one example of those costs, “live bookmarks” use a very old, very slow way to access the bookmarks database, and it would take a lot of time and effort to bring it up to the performance standards we expect from Quantum. Likewise, the feed viewer has its own “special” XML parser, distinct from the main Firefox one, and has not had a significant update in styling or functionality in the last seven years,” Kruitbosch explains.
Besides that, the feed previews and live bookmarks are used are both used in around 0.01% of sessions, according to Kruitbosch. Which means there are a lot of costs for low demand.
Users can export their existing live bookmarks to an OPML file and use it with another application. Mozilla has also added a support page that provides more information. Firefox 60 ESR users can continue to use both live bookmarks and RSS feed. The functionality will likely be removed with the release of Firefox 68 ESR.
