Tim Bray recently posted how "one click subscription" is necessary for wider adoption of RSS. I’ve often thought the same thing. While RSS isn’t really difficult to use right now, it certainly isn’t obvious. For example, how would someone know that if they need to right-click the little orange "XML" button and "copy link location" to a service or newsreader that they’ve already configured?
It took me a while to jump on the RSS bandwagon, and I didn’t really appreciate how useful syndication was until fairly recently. It was only after I figured out what I was doing and jumped in with both feet that I truly understood what RSS was capable of.
People need to be convinced of the usefulness of RSS. The easiest way to convince them is to have them actually begin using it. To get people to begin using it, it has to be simple. One click subscribing would encourage a lot more people to subscribe to blogs and Web sites using RSS.
Safari, the web browser for Apple, has one button subscription. It detects any RSS links on a given webpage and puts an RSS button on the address textbox on the top. I click it and it imports it into my newsreader. Boo yaw. Apple Rocks.