Microsoft's forthcoming Internet Explorer 7 browser will adopt Firefox's RSS feed icon, the company announced on a blog--effectively making the orange square with white radio waves the industry standard.



RSS, which stands for both Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication, is a system for generating automated feeds of Web site updates--such as blog postings or news--and sending them to an e-mail address or an RSS reader. Some 31% of Web users have used RSS to get information according to market research firm Ipsos Insight.

The seventh IE browser, due out in mid-2006, will be the first version to feature RSS feed searches and bookmarks, but unlike in Firefox, users will not be able to read a list of each feed's headlines.

More than 14% of Americans use Firefox as their main Web browser, according to OneStat, a Web traffic analysis firm.

Mozilla's Firefox, which is compatible with both PC and Mac systems, has seen rapid adoption since it was first released in November 2004. Developed by a group of programmers, spearheaded by wunderkind Blake Ross in 2003, more than 100 million people downloaded the free software and chose to use it instead of Microsoft's Internet Explorer because of the program's extra features like an integrated pop-up ad blocker and tabbed browsing.