Google Brings Back RSS Subscriptions To Chrome Browser

As a once-popular format, RSS can help users get relevant updates from subscribed websites, and users of Google Reader and similar services will not be unfamiliar with this. Only in recent years, RSS seems to have gradually faded out of the field of vision of many people. However, in the next few weeks, Google Chrome will usher in an interesting feature update, because the browser will bring back support for RSS subscription services -at least the experimental Canary Early Access version on the Android platform (only Applicable to users in the U.S.

In the Chrome browser, you will soon see the “Follow” function of the RSS subscription of the support website, and you will also see the basic RSS reader options on the browser’s new tab menu.

Although the initial features are not necessarily comprehensive (for example, it is not possible to easily switch between news sources), but here it is indeed possible to display the update push of the website that users follow in chronological order.

Janice Wong, Google Chrome Product Manager, mentioned in the updated copy written today:

Nowadays, beginners can follow their favorite sites in a variety of ways, including subscribing to mailing list notifications and RSS, but everyone needs to manage a lot of things.

Therefore, we are exploring how to simplify the user experience based on the open RSS network standard, so that everyone can directly use the Chrome browser to obtain the latest and most valuable information of the websites that have been followed.

Our vision is to help people establish direct connections with their favorite publishers and creators on the web.

As for the implementation method behind the scenes, a Google spokesperson said that the company chose to grab RSS feeds to ensure that Chrome can provide users with the latest and richest content in the “below” section of the new tab.

Read More: Google Chrome Adds New Sharing Menu Feature

RSS is one of the basic technologies in the Web 2.0 era. Even today, it is still the easiest way for many people to get timely updates from their favorite websites (although some websites may have stopped the RSS service).

However, the user experience of RSS is not very ideal. Even if services such as Google Reader’s (abandoned) Feedly have made many improvements in simplifying the process of subscribing and obtaining updates, the glorious years are ultimately Drifting away from us. Today, only some fairly stubborn news fans continue to keep their Feedly accounts and clients such as the old version of NetNewsWire.