6 ms·

Google Chrome is getting an RSS feed reader on desktop

ChrisRR 4y ago
I can't wait to see how long it takes google to scrap it like they did with google reader
- bfuller 4y ago
  RIP google reader
- anotherhue 4y ago
  While Reader still shares a place in my heart along with Firefly, I do wonder if it would have died an ecosystem death anyway? Blogging was on the decline, perhaps they sped it up but I don't think it would have held back the tide. The media consumption landscape is too supercharged with quick hit fast-food to support long form profitably. Can blogs be run non-profitably? Of course, but either the author is time/money rich, or they'll try and hop the influencer train. Blogging for blogs sake seems to be destined for niche-ness.
  - karaterobot 4y ago
    But there are still so many blogs, and even successful companies who charge money for feed readers. It never really went away. I imagine there's a world where Google, still in the RSS space, realized that newsletters were an oddly vibrant market, and were the ones who started alternate-universe Substack.
- ortusdux 4y ago
  I still have reader bookmarked. I keep it next to my gmail bookmark as a reminder to not get overly invested in any one ecosystem/service.
kevincox 4y ago
I'm always happy to see things that will improve the adoption of RSS. I think it is a far better way to consume content compared to big companies deciding what they think you want to see (this may get a bit of this on the side from Google but I am not against a bit of recommendations as long as the focus is on what you subscribed to). I personally have my own reader setup but the more options the merrier. That is what makes standard protocols great.
ProAm 4y ago
Have we come full circle where Google killed Google Reader only to have someone at google needing a promotion to re-create google reader and put it into chrome?
- 323 4y ago
  And two years from now it will be removed again in a "de-bloat" drive. Circle of life...
superkuh 4y ago
Good news. Firefox removed support for displaying feed XML in version 64 in Dec 2018. If Mozilla follows Chrome like normal it should be back soon. Being able to display feeds is a nice thing to have in a browser. But a dedicated native feed reader is almost always a better way to go. QuiteRSS handles large (1000+) feed lists well.
- yakubin 4y ago
  They serve different purposes. The viewer in the browser is only to preview what you're going to get if you subscribe without switching context to another application (most feeds I view I don't end up subscribing to). A feed reader is for subscribing and reading regularly. A shout-out to NetNewsWire from me. It's perfect.
  - torstenvl 4y ago
    > A shout-out to NetNewsWire from me. It's perfect. It would be a lot more perfect if you could force it to push local state to the cloud when it syncs (or vice versa). Automagically applying heuristics doesn't always work so well. I really need to sit down one weekend and figure out how to make this work (by iterating through DB.sqlite3 and pushing the appropriate entries to Sync.sqlite3... I think...).
- apostacy 4y ago
  It was really disappointing that Firefox removed RSS support. I could understand Chrome was abandoning an essential open standard, as they are a for-profit company. But Mozilla doing it was senseless. The only thing that seems to reliably motivate Mozilla to change their browser is when Google adds a new feature, so I am confident that Firefox will get RSS support again.
- butz 4y ago
  I really miss RSS integration in Firefox. Now I have to dig in website source code to see if it has RSS feed or not. Hopefully after Chrome RSS reader will get some success, Mozilla might build RSS reader into Firefox too. It would be even more useful to sync RSS feeds using Firefox account between devices, like bookmarks.
guilhas 4y ago
Following the trend should we be expecting Chrome XUL addons?
- kallistisoft 4y ago
  You may be joking(?), but I thoroughly enjoyed developing XUL based applications[1]. I found the design paradigm to be well ahead of the curve and cleaner than it's successors (like Angular) are today. [1] only gripe I had with XUL was the use of rdf for backend data representation
  - karaterobot 4y ago
    There is no data, there is only XUL! I also thoroughly enjoyed that era.
  - guilhas 4y ago
    I loved XUL addons, they did everything, Chrome was not even an option for an advanced user, it took years for webext to reach a similar point of usefulness. And still there are small things that worked better in XUL My problem is Mozzarella keeps removing Firefox features that Chrome adds later
    - TrianguloY 4y ago
      Not sure if that typo was intentional, but really gave me a chuckle.
    - apostacy 4y ago
      Unlike XUL, extensions are just passengers, with no power to override core browser engine features. I don't think that web extensions have reached a similar level of usefulness today. And even if they did, why should we have waited so many years to gain that functionality back? Google's decision to have crippled extensions was made in a corporate board room to maximize Google's leverage at the expense of utility for users. So it is tragic and baffling to see Mozilla pantomiming what Google did, since throwing away a far more mature and powerful extension framework benefits nobody but Google. Google could troll Mozilla by just announcing that they are deprecating local bookmarks (and they may very well do that), and watch as Firefox obsequiously removes bookmarks from Firefox, "to stay modern", and then Google could pull the rug out from under then by not deprecating it.
dhosek 4y ago
I really miss my old Safari-based RSS workflow (readflow?) You could put a bunch of fees into a single folder and then get the new articles all at once. I generally opened them all in the original site¹ (I hate that many Wordpress themes default to truncated article presentation, but even so, it was nice to get things in their idiosyncratic display for each blog). I’d end up with a couple dozen tabs which I would read the article, maybe leave a comment and close and move on to the next one. I use NetNewsWire on my iPad now, but it really doesn’t measure up to that old approach to my mind. ⸻ 1. I had thought, why isn’t there an RSS reader that does this now and apparently, there’s no guarantee that the title link in an RSS feed goes to the blog article and not some external link being discussed in the blog post.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
AlbertoGP 4y ago
Reminds me of the movie Zombieland, Columbus’ rules for surviving the zombie apocalypse: > “#2: Double Tap - In those moments when you're not sure the undead are really dead dead, don't get all stingy with your bullets. I mean, one more clean shot to the head.” > https://zombieland.fandom.com/wiki/Zombieland_Rules https://zombieland.fandom.com/wiki/Zombieland_Rules Google might be just going to make sure that RSS stays dead, and not just “playing possum”.
- emptyparadise 4y ago
  They should make sure this won't have a simple chronological list of updates to make life worse.
orzi 4y ago
Looking at you, Mozilla. Add RSS and Live Bookmarks back!
pipeline_peak 4y ago
This would be great if iOS chrome supported reader mode……
TrueSlacker0 4y ago
It reminds me of the days using the Opera browser in the early 2000's. It had a wonderfully quick and easy to use feed reader. I still miss the ease of it.
- emptyparadise 4y ago
  I miss Opera having everything in it.
  - mminer237 4y ago
    Vivaldi is very reminiscent of it. It's even by von Tetzchner. (And I guess SeaMonkey still exists.)
_chu1 4y ago
I just swapped to LibreWolf so good thing I don't care about RSS feeds
Havoc 4y ago
I doubt the core potential user base of rss trusts google on this given their history
treesknees 4y ago
Heh, I recall back in 2008-2009 thinking how Chrome couldn't possibly compete with Firefox because it couldn't even read/subscribe to RSS. Here we are today, it's the number one browser in the world and is finally getting RSS capabilities.
stereoradonc 4y ago
Good for services like Inoreader and Feedly (or others in the space). This will lower the bar for discovery and users will want something better than a plain vanilla reader.
davecheney 4y ago
Those who do not remember Google Reeder are doomed to reimplement it, poorly.

I can't wait to see how long it takes google to scrap it like they did with google reader

bfuller 4y ago
RIP google reader
anotherhue 4y ago
While Reader still shares a place in my heart along with Firefly, I do wonder if it would have died an ecosystem death anyway? Blogging was on the decline, perhaps they sped it up but I don't think it would have held back the tide. The media consumption landscape is too supercharged with quick hit fast-food to support long form profitably. Can blogs be run non-profitably? Of course, but either the author is time/money rich, or they'll try and hop the influencer train. Blogging for blogs sake seems to be destined for niche-ness.
- karaterobot 4y ago
  But there are still so many blogs, and even successful companies who charge money for feed readers. It never really went away. I imagine there's a world where Google, still in the RSS space, realized that newsletters were an oddly vibrant market, and were the ones who started alternate-universe Substack.
ortusdux 4y ago
I still have reader bookmarked. I keep it next to my gmail bookmark as a reminder to not get overly invested in any one ecosystem/service.

I'm always happy to see things that will improve the adoption of RSS. I think it is a far better way to consume content compared to big companies deciding what they think you want to see (this may get a bit of this on the side from Google but I am not against a bit of recommendations as long as the focus is on what you subscribed to). I personally have my own reader setup but the more options the merrier. That is what makes standard protocols great.

ProAm 4y ago

Have we come full circle where Google killed Google Reader only to have someone at google needing a promotion to re-create google reader and put it into chrome?

323 4y ago
And two years from now it will be removed again in a "de-bloat" drive. Circle of life...

superkuh 4y ago

Good news. Firefox removed support for displaying feed XML in version 64 in Dec 2018. If Mozilla follows Chrome like normal it should be back soon. Being able to display feeds is a nice thing to have in a browser. But a dedicated native feed reader is almost always a better way to go. QuiteRSS handles large (1000+) feed lists well.

yakubin 4y ago
They serve different purposes. The viewer in the browser is only to preview what you're going to get if you subscribe without switching context to another application (most feeds I view I don't end up subscribing to). A feed reader is for subscribing and reading regularly. A shout-out to NetNewsWire from me. It's perfect.
- torstenvl 4y ago
  > A shout-out to NetNewsWire from me. It's perfect. It would be a lot more perfect if you could force it to push local state to the cloud when it syncs (or vice versa). Automagically applying heuristics doesn't always work so well. I really need to sit down one weekend and figure out how to make this work (by iterating through DB.sqlite3 and pushing the appropriate entries to Sync.sqlite3... I think...).
apostacy 4y ago
It was really disappointing that Firefox removed RSS support. I could understand Chrome was abandoning an essential open standard, as they are a for-profit company. But Mozilla doing it was senseless. The only thing that seems to reliably motivate Mozilla to change their browser is when Google adds a new feature, so I am confident that Firefox will get RSS support again.
butz 4y ago
I really miss RSS integration in Firefox. Now I have to dig in website source code to see if it has RSS feed or not. Hopefully after Chrome RSS reader will get some success, Mozilla might build RSS reader into Firefox too. It would be even more useful to sync RSS feeds using Firefox account between devices, like bookmarks.

guilhas 4y ago

Following the trend should we be expecting Chrome XUL addons?

kallistisoft 4y ago
You may be joking(?), but I thoroughly enjoyed developing XUL based applications[1]. I found the design paradigm to be well ahead of the curve and cleaner than it's successors (like Angular) are today. [1] only gripe I had with XUL was the use of rdf for backend data representation
- karaterobot 4y ago
  There is no data, there is only XUL! I also thoroughly enjoyed that era.
- guilhas 4y ago
  I loved XUL addons, they did everything, Chrome was not even an option for an advanced user, it took years for webext to reach a similar point of usefulness. And still there are small things that worked better in XUL My problem is Mozzarella keeps removing Firefox features that Chrome adds later
  - TrianguloY 4y ago
    Not sure if that typo was intentional, but really gave me a chuckle.
  - apostacy 4y ago
    Unlike XUL, extensions are just passengers, with no power to override core browser engine features. I don't think that web extensions have reached a similar level of usefulness today. And even if they did, why should we have waited so many years to gain that functionality back? Google's decision to have crippled extensions was made in a corporate board room to maximize Google's leverage at the expense of utility for users. So it is tragic and baffling to see Mozilla pantomiming what Google did, since throwing away a far more mature and powerful extension framework benefits nobody but Google. Google could troll Mozilla by just announcing that they are deprecating local bookmarks (and they may very well do that), and watch as Firefox obsequiously removes bookmarks from Firefox, "to stay modern", and then Google could pull the rug out from under then by not deprecating it.

dhosek 4y ago

I really miss my old Safari-based RSS workflow (readflow?) You could put a bunch of fees into a single folder and then get the new articles all at once. I generally opened them all in the original site¹ (I hate that many Wordpress themes default to truncated article presentation, but even so, it was nice to get things in their idiosyncratic display for each blog). I’d end up with a couple dozen tabs which I would read the article, maybe leave a comment and close and move on to the next one. I use NetNewsWire on my iPad now, but it really doesn’t measure up to that old approach to my mind. ⸻ 1. I had thought, why isn’t there an RSS reader that does this now and apparently, there’s no guarantee that the title link in an RSS feed goes to the blog article and not some external link being discussed in the blog post.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

AlbertoGP 4y ago

Reminds me of the movie Zombieland, Columbus’ rules for surviving the zombie apocalypse: > “#2: Double Tap - In those moments when you're not sure the undead are really dead dead, don't get all stingy with your bullets. I mean, one more clean shot to the head.” > https://zombieland.fandom.com/wiki/Zombieland_Rules https://zombieland.fandom.com/wiki/Zombieland_Rules Google might be just going to make sure that RSS stays dead, and not just “playing possum”.

emptyparadise 4y ago
They should make sure this won't have a simple chronological list of updates to make life worse.

orzi 4y ago

Looking at you, Mozilla. Add RSS and Live Bookmarks back!

pipeline_peak 4y ago

This would be great if iOS chrome supported reader mode……

TrueSlacker0 4y ago

It reminds me of the days using the Opera browser in the early 2000's. It had a wonderfully quick and easy to use feed reader. I still miss the ease of it.

emptyparadise 4y ago
I miss Opera having everything in it.
- mminer237 4y ago
  Vivaldi is very reminiscent of it. It's even by von Tetzchner. (And I guess SeaMonkey still exists.)

_chu1 4y ago

I just swapped to LibreWolf so good thing I don't care about RSS feeds

Havoc 4y ago

I doubt the core potential user base of rss trusts google on this given their history

treesknees 4y ago

Heh, I recall back in 2008-2009 thinking how Chrome couldn't possibly compete with Firefox because it couldn't even read/subscribe to RSS. Here we are today, it's the number one browser in the world and is finally getting RSS capabilities.

stereoradonc 4y ago

Good for services like Inoreader and Feedly (or others in the space). This will lower the bar for discovery and users will want something better than a plain vanilla reader.

davecheney 4y ago

Those who do not remember Google Reeder are doomed to reimplement it, poorly.