MOST OF US are bombarded with daily emails, subscriptions, and social media posts. We either waste time skimming through everything or delete it all and potentially miss important content. How do we streamline the process or read all our news in one spot? An RSS reader is the answer! RSS is an acronym for “really simple syndication.” This tool allows the reader to talk to your favorite websites and some of them allow you to organize your email newsletters, Facebook pages, Twitter searches, podcasts, and more. Most of the readers feature built-in search and suggestions, so it makes feeds easy to locate.
After researching RSS readers, I quickly had opinions about what makes a good one. I started with two “Best Of” list including one from Wired, which specializes in content that “illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our lives” (Wired, 2022). From these lists, there were a few great apps in common and I checked to see if they met my basic criteria. Each of the 3 apps are all polished, easy to use, and put content front and center. The last thing I need in my day is one more location that requires me to weed through information. For the 3 apps that met my basic criteria, I imported the list of blogs that I want to subscribe to decide which one would be the best fit. After using each one over the course of a week, there are two that stood out from the pack.
My favorite RSS readers
Inoreader is my first choice for an RSS feed reader. It is very user friendly, but more importantly, it’s visually easy to navigate with large thumbnails that give you a quick snippet of what to expect. Typically, feed readers look like your email inbox and can quickly become full of clutter just like everything else. There is a web interface as well as a mobile option that works with both iOS and Android.
Inoreader delivers more than just RSS feeds – you can add email newsletters, Facebook pages, podcasts and more. Plus, advanced users will love the monitoring and automation features that are available with a Pro account.
Feedly is a popular RSS feed reader that lets you organize and read all your favorite blogs in one convenient place. At first glance, it’s not as visually intuitive as Inoreader. But after interacting with it a little more, I am hard pressed to decide my favorite pick until I spend a little more time with them. Like Inoreader, Feedly offers iOS and Android apps along with a web interface.
I like Feedly, but for varied reasons. The search feature is easy to locate at the top of the page and allows you to instantly search through several site categories much like an OPAC system. Below the search bar, Feedly provides featured categories that are depicted by large descriptive thumbnails and additional categories are highlighted by featured content providers. A Pro subscription enables more features like notes for Evernote, and ad-free reading. Feedly’s most impressive feature is the AI research assistant that keeps your feeds clutter free and surfaces the content you really want. One feature that I really love is that outdated blogs are identified as “inactive”, which is a useful feature and makes Feedly an excellent choice.
Gilbertson, [Scott Gilbertson]. (2022, August 25). The Best RSS Feed Readers for Streamlining the Internet. Gear. Retrieved September 5, 2022, from https://www.wired.com/story/best-rss-feed-readers/
Liedke, [Lindsay Liedke]. (2022, August 29). 6 Best Free RSS Readers (2022 Edition). Blogging Wizard. Retrieved September 5, 2022, from https://bloggingwizard.com/free-rss-feed-readers/
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