Chrome ‘brief’ is confusing, but it’s not the return of Google Reader

Does Google enjoy stirring up some of the most devoted fans of its products, sometimes torturing them downright? It could seem that way.

Hidden inside the latest version of high-end Chrome is a “follow-up feed” that some bloggers dream about is the return of Google Reader. Unlikely, but never say never when it comes to Google product decisions.

Chrome Added a sidebar To browse bookmarks and reading list articles back in March. Over the weekend, Chrome Story blog I noticed a new science in gerritThe unstable test build of the open source Chrome peer Chromium. enable it #following-feed-sidepanel Flag (now also available in Chrome test version, canary) adds another option to the sidebar: Feed.

feeds? Like an RSS feed, the kind we used to have Dear, I left Google Reader, kill for Google+ errors?

Kevin Tofel About Chromebooks thought so. Tofel writes it base code The feature “highly suggests” an RSS-based feed reader, based on the language selected for Web Feeds. Then again, the same section of code, which enhances the interaction between the browser and the sidebar, notes that it will be “the interface that Discover Feed content… will use to communicate with the browser.”

There is some ambiguity out there – but there is also evidence that Google is committed to its long-term effort to harness the open RSS standard in the Google ecosystem of “Continue”.

The ‘Continue’ button was introduced in a file Chrome for Android experience May 2021. Following a site allows you to see its latest updates in a tab on Chrome’s New Tab page, similar to the Discover home page feature on many Android phones. This feature appeared in Chromium Gerrit desktop builds Earlier this yearand the Continue button is now available in Chrome Canary.

Last week, Chrome Update his guidance For site owners looking to get readers to “follow” their sites, ask them to make feed titles descriptive and choose one feed for readers rather than presenting multiple sections.

Chrome watch blogs like to raise the specter of Google Reader in the headlines when discussing Google’s attempts to turn apps and devices into content hubs. But it’s highly unlikely that Google would invest so much in putting Discover-like feeds into its phones, web-based laptops, browsers, search engine, Nest hubs, and more, simply to give in and say, “Indeed, we’ll just show you your addresses again.” Discovering feeds is also a space that Google controls, so it can flood it with ads, which it can’t do with RSS.

Fortunately, there is a well-established market for old school and reimagined RSS readers — and some of them Very good options. Speaking of which, Ars Technica offers Multiple RSS feeds segmented for readers. You can also add files /feed/ To the end of any author page URL for author-specific feeds, such as So.