How to Subscribe to RSS Feeds with Google Reader and Internet Explorer

In August I was being the dutiful son and trying to get my father hooked on RSS feeds. (It’s like the Ring — if you get someone hooked on RSS you no longer have 700 unread items in Google Reader)

I hit a snag: his browser of choice is Internet Explorer and there wasn’t a simple way to “one-click subscribe” like there is in Firefox. I couldn’t come up with a quick solution while I was there, but I did bitch about it afterwards which lead to one of my readers coming up with a solution using Google Toolbar. Thanks!

To Install

Step 1: Install Google Toolbar (if you don’t already have it)

Step 2: Install the Add to Google Reader button for the toolbar

To Use

Step 1: Click on an RSS feed link

Click to subscribe using RSS

Step 2: Click on the RSS icon in the Google Toolbar

Step 3: Choose the Subscribe with Google Reader option

The only gotcha is that you have to click on the feed URL before clicking on the Add to Google Reader button. This is because the Google Toolbar Button API doesn’t support RSS feed autodiscovery (something they’ll hopefully rectify). It’s still not as simple as subscribing to a feed with Firefox, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Thanks for helping me with this Eric, this is a great example of the lazyweb in action.

For the geeks in the audience, building a custom button is quite easy. I’m going to have to give it a try some time.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<custombuttons xmlns="http://toolbar.google.com/custombuttons/">
  <button>
    <title>Add to Google Reader</title>
    <description>Add to Google Reader</description>
    <site>http://fusion.google.com/ig/add?feedurl={url.noescape}</site>
    <search>http://fusion.google.com/ig/add?feedurl={query}</search>
    <icon>...snip...</icon>
    <update>http://www.zouric.com/geek/addtogooglereader.xml</update>
  </button>
</custombuttons>