Great post, I initially started to use RSS in both iGoogle and desktop software but quickly lost interest as the experience is somewhat archaic.

Being a web designer I often have to dumb down terminology for clients and their users, so understand the need for an 'even a monkey could use it' UX. Both Facebook and Twitter excel at making their UX appealing to all users without them having to think about it.

Surely to integrate some of the jQuery-esque goodness of these and other sites within the browser for a better user experience would be a welcomed and relatively painless inclusion?

Just imagine, a live, updating, content rich Delicious in your browser ...