Version: 1.1.2 (using KDE KDE 3.4.2) Akregator doesn't work exclusively with RSS feeds and RSS isn't the best feed format to begin with. So, having that in mind, it would be desired that the "RSS" in akregator's panel icon should be renamed to something more fitting. I suggest Feed.
I agree that having "RSS" in there is not good. But "Feed" isn't any better, even worse, considering that icons are not i18n'd. Actually I think it should not contain text at all. For the icon in Akregator, we replaced the "RSS" by a symbol like "(( * ))", representing syndication. So the Akregator Icon should be adapted to that (or both redesigned). I change this to a bug and adjust the title.
We originally added RSS there because it was something people knew of. But I agree, it'd probably be better to remove it since we're agnostic to syndication formats.
A new idea: a common feed icon has been negotiated recently. What do you think about just using the feed icon, that Mozilla, Microsoft and Opera agreed on? The icon could be gray if there are no new messages, and color (orange) if some new messages arrived. I think that would make the symbol way clearer than it is now. Displaying the number of awaiting messages could be configurable (ie. switch)
Very good idea, the feed icon for the Konqueror plugin is similar to this in KDE 3.5 for me already. (Not identical to the Firefox/Internet Explorer 7 feed icon, but very similar.) All that would have to be done would be to replace the RSS bit of the icon with something like the plugin's icon, which would also be better usability - why are the application's and plugin's icons different currently?
We won't change this in the 3.5 cycle anymore, and for KDE4 we need a new Oxygen icon anyway. So I close this bug report.