Feeds · 2000s

RSS Badges

The orange icon for following without a platform.

Evidence status · blocked no public source

Claim provenance

No exact digital-history answer is available from the evidence stored in this repository. Nostalgic or editorial recollection is not promoted to documented fact.

Evidence trail
No primary announcement, contemporary record, or version-specific archive capture is recorded
Source review
unknown · 2026-07-31

Missing primary, contemporary, or archival evidence: sourceName, sourceUrl, sourceIdentifier, authorityClass.

Quick answer

The orange icon for following without a platform. A short exhibit about rss badges and why it mattered on the old web.

Source-first Reviewed Jul 2026

What it was

RSS badges told readers a site could be followed directly in a feed reader.

Why people remember it

  • They represented user-controlled subscription.
  • The feed was portable and quiet.
  • The idea keeps returning whenever people tire of algorithmic feeds.

What replaced it

Usually a platform feature, a private analytics dashboard, a cleaner app pattern, or a feed. The behavior rarely disappears; it gets renamed and absorbed.