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The Feed Icon Debate

Monday, June 12th, 2006
at 10:03pm

I received an email from Daniel Goldman earlier today regarding Mozilla’s filing for a trademark on the feed icon, requesting that Opera Software sign an agreement before using it in their Web browser. Daniel asked me if I thought this was a good thing or a bad thing for the feed icon. Let me start out by saying that the blogosphere has to get over the whole “copyrights and trademarks are evil” jihad.

Daniel asked: “Do you think that a trademark on a universal feed icon beneficial or detrimental?” I answered: Beneficial if Mozilla allows anybody to use the icon to indicate a feed - and detrimental if they don’t. They’re likely serving as the icon’s protectors, which is what I’m inclined to believe.

Daniel asked: “Do you have your own opinion on what a universal feed icon should be?” I answered: Yeah, theirs. It’s the only one that put the orange XML vs. orange RSS button debate to bed. If Microsoft signed the agreement for usage in Internet Explorer 7.0, then so should Opera - and so should anybody. I don’t think Mozilla is doing this to hurt the community, but to protect it. Would anybody rather have a crazy greedmonger holding onto the trademark? Doubtful.

Opera, please sign the agreement.

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9 Comments

Let’s Have an RSS Icon Pissing Match » Another Blogger

June 12th, 2006
at 10:35pm

[...] Let’s get everyone on board and use a consistent icon.  Looks like Chris Pirillo just posted the same thing… Technorati Tags: rss, icons, mozilla, opera, feeds, ui [...]

Ambit-Online.net

June 13th, 2006
at 6:16am

[...] I agree with Chris for the most part. I use the ’standard’ feed icon in this site (see below, it’s shown twice even!) and I think it’s good to finally have something that could be universally accepted. Web standards has tried, but not everyone has jumped in with both feet, *cough* Microsoft *cough*, although this time around it’s not Microsoft we’re waiting for, and it wasn’t their idea to begin with. It started with Mozilla and then it spread to web developers/designers and then to IE, and now Mozilla is trying to coax Opera into signing up. So that’ll be everyone, right? Wrong. Hasn’t anyone thought about Safari? It looks doubtful. As far as I know Apple is still using their own blue RSS icon (even though half the feeds that are used are Atom, so it’s a misrepresentation). So why doesn’t Mozilla go for them? There are plenty of Safari users to make it a force to think about when doing things online, in fact it’s probably about the same as Opera users (don’t quote me on this, I’m not 100% sure, I’m making a guess here). [...]

Act Now - It’s Too Good to be True! (Technology Information and News)

June 13th, 2006
at 6:24am

[Chris Pirillo] I received an email from Daniel Goldman earlier today regarding Mozilla’s filing for a trademark on the feed icon, requesting that Opera Software sign an agreement before using it in their Web browser. Daniel asked me if I thought this …

NetWizard's Blog

June 14th, 2006
at 1:27pm

the two creators of the icon) about the fact that Mozilla MIGHT NOT own the trademark in the first place o Post by Frank Hecker (executive director of the Mozilla Foundation and the person who signed Mozilla’s trademark application) about the mark oChris Pirillo blogging on the subject o Randy Morin of RSS blog blogging on the subject and a follow up o Post by Randy Morin to the RSS Public list on the subject o Post from Mitchell Baker (head of Mozilla Corp) on the subject, also see

Tom Tostanoski

June 15th, 2006
at 7:04pm

I’m not sure what kind of agreement the Mozilla people want. I’m using Beta 2 of Opera 9, and the RSS icon is already there. They’ve been using in these tests for some time. So yes, they’re already on board. Grab the Opera beta and check for yourself.

Drew Olanoff

June 18th, 2006
at 9:09pm

So glad to see the icon back in the most recent Opera 9 build. Sometimes, universal symbols aren’t a bad thing.

Iggy Uncensored

April 9th, 2007
at 11:01pm

Even if your not going you should pay attention to this RSS feed…

Every year one of my favorite RSS feeds is the Gnomedex feed for attendees. It’s a one stop shop for some of the best content and opinions on the internet. Not that I always agree with what is being said. But none the less I hated when this feed went …

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