I’m really happy that CNET Download.com has reviewed my application msfeedicon, a free RSS plugin to the Windows RSS platform. The rating is 4 stars of possible 5 and here is the review:

c|net Download.com review of msfeediconIf you cant get through the day without checking your RSS feed subscriptions, you’ll be glad to know about Msfeedicon: It perks up and simplifies Internet Explorer’s RSS feature by adding some functionality. There’s one caveat: The tagging feature described by the publisher didn’t work in our tests.

After installation and a reboot, this little IE add-on dropped an RSS icon in our system tray. When we held the cursor over the icon, a small alert popped up with the number of unread posts in the updated feeds. Although Msfeedicon is tied to IE, clicking the icon opened our default browser instead of IE. The publisher updates this utility frequently, so we wouldn’t be surprised if an upcoming version addresses that issue so you can configure Msfeedicon to open IE despite your default browser setting.

An alert popped up when feeds were updated. Although the publisher describes a Tags feature that will pick up feeds on related topics, we weren’t able to make this feature work during our tests. Still, the ease of use and its space-saving component (no more keeping Favorites Center open to be alerted to updates) make this a recommended tool for RSS-feed devotees.

The review is pretty good, but “complains” on the Tag feature, which I think that the reviewer has misunderstood. Although the comments on the feature has given me a nice possible enhancement opportunity.

I am currently rebuilding msfeedicon from scratch to include some nice suggestions from users and adding some new features. Msfeedicon 3 will also include a new interface, that at least I think it looks nicer.

There will be some kind of beta in the near future and if you are interested in participating or if you have any feature suggestions, please contact me.

I’m heading for that last Download.com star!