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Digging into bleeding-edge Chrome code has made some bloggers hopeful, but Google has been focused on its own feeds for a while now.
Enlarge / Digging into bleeding-edge Chrome code has made some bloggers hopeful, however Google has been centered by itself feeds for some time now.

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Does Google take pleasure in teasing and generally outright torturing a few of its merchandise’ most devoted followers? It can appear that manner.

Tucked away inside a current bleeding-edge Chrome construct is a “Following feed” that has some bloggers dreaming of the return of Google Reader. It’s unlikely, however by no means say by no means with regards to Google product selections.

Chrome added a sidebar for looking bookmarks and Reading List articles again in March. Over the weekend, the Chrome Story weblog observed a brand new flag in Gerrit, the unstable testing construct of Chrome’s open supply counterpart Chromium. Enabling that flag (now additionally out there in Chrome’s testing construct, Canary) provides one other choice to the sidebar: Feed.

Feeds? Like RSS feeds, the sort we as soon as had in pricey, departed Google Reader, slain for the sins of Google+?

Kevin Tofel of About Chromebooks thinks so. Tofel writes that the underlying code of the function “strongly suggests” an RSS-based feed reader, based mostly on the precise language of “internet feeds.” Then once more, that very same code part, powering the interplay between browser and sidebar, notes that will probably be “the interface that Discover Feed content material… will use to speak with the browser.”

There’s some ambiguity there—but additionally proof that Google is sticking with its long-gestating efforts to harness the open RSS customary within the Google ecosystem of “Follow.”

The “Follow” button was launched in a Chrome for Android experiment in May 2021. Following a web site allowed you to see its newest updates in a tab in your Chrome “new tab” web page, much like the “Discover” dwelling web page function on many Android telephones. The function trickled into the Chromium Gerrit desktop builds earlier this 12 months, and a “Follow” button is now out there in Chrome Canary.

Google's "Follow" button, now appearing in Chrome Canary builds.
Enlarge / Google’s “Follow” button, now showing in Chrome Canary builds.

Last week, Chrome up to date its steering for web site house owners seeking to have readers “Follow” their websites, asking them to make feed titles descriptive and to pick a single feed for readers as an alternative of providing a number of sections.

Chrome-watching blogs like to boost the specter of Google Reader in headlines when discussing Google’s makes an attempt to show apps and gadgets into content material hubs. But it is extremely unlikely that Google would make investments a lot into placing Discover-like feeds into its telephones, web-based laptops, browsers, search engine, Nest hubs, and extra, merely to give up and say, “Actually, we’ll simply present you your headlines once more.” Discover feeds are additionally an area that Google controls, so it could actually infuse them with promoting, which it could actually’t do with RSS.

Luckily, there’s a longtime marketplace for old-school and reimagined RSS readers—and a few superb choices. Speaking of which, Ars Technica presents a number of segmented RSS feeds for readers. You may add /feed/ to the top of any creator web page URL for author-specific feeds, like so.

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