I've used Google News as my main way to get the news for years, but after using it for a while,
I started to realize that there were several downsides to using newsfeed aggregator apps
like Google News. The first one was the results. I was finding more and more crappy
clickbait headlines entering my feed from publications I had never heard of. I tried
to clean out these publications from the feed and retrain the algorithm, but after a while,
the feed would just get full of crap again. But the biggest downside with these feeds that
I found over the years is that I didn't actually end up reading as many articles as I wanted to. I
just kept scrolling to find an interesting headline that I might read in the moment,
but most of the time I'd read the headline and then just keep scrolling.
I still wanted an app that aggregated all of the publications I pay for into a single view,
but one where I had total control over all of the publications shown to me and one that
didn't have an endless scrolling feed. So I searched for a better solution and
felt dumb when I realized what I was looking for had been around for at least two decades: RSS,
which stands for Really Simple Syndication. In simple terms, RSS is an open web standard that
allows you to follow feeds from sources that you choose. Most news publications still utilize it,
but it's not just for news. The entire podcast industry
basically runs on RSS. That's why at the end of a podcast, the host will say something like,
"Download us on Pocketcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts." The reason they're able to say that
last part is because of RSS, and RSS can be used to do other things like follow websites.
Now, RSS itself is not an app. Remember, it's an open standard, so you need an application that can
not only read RSS feeds but display them in a way that's appealing to you. And that's what an RSS
reader does. These apps allow you to aggregate all of the RSS feeds you follow into a single place.
You're probably familiar with one of the big former RSS readers, Google Reader. Google
retired it to its graveyard back in 2013 in favor of their Google News product. Nowadays,
there are several (and dare I say, better) RSS readers out there, including Feedly, Inoreader,
Feedbin, Vivaldi News, Blur, and others. I've used a few of these apps, but the
main one that I've stuck with for the past almost two years now is Feedly. Feedly makes
it really easy to get started with RSS feeds. You can easily add content by looking up the
name of a publication. For example, The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal.
You'll notice that many publications actually have multiple feeds. So if
you're only interested in something like The Wall Street Journal's business section but not
something like their opinion section, you can just subscribe to their business feed. Or for
something like The New York Times, you can just subscribe to The New York Times technology feed.
Feedly and other readers allow you to create folders that you can categorize all of your feeds
into. And you can also add websites and connect to Reddit and newsletters in the app as well.
And you can also add websites and connect to Reddit and newsletters in the app as well. For
example, the written reviews we post on our website 6-months-later.com. Don't forget the
dashes! Because I built the six months later site on WordPress. In order to get an RSS feed
from a WordPress site, all you have to do is add ‘/feed’ to the end of the main URL. So I'll add
that URL into the search box and you'll see it immediately picks up that RSS feed for the site.
Same thing goes for newsletters, by the way, like the one we publish on Substack. And you'll see it
pulls through the RSS feed for our Substack newsletter, which by the way, gives you a
monthly recap of all of the videos we publish, plus you'll get exclusive hot takes and review
follow-ups. Link to sign up in the description. And it doesn't just stop there. If you have a
favorite YouTube channel you want to follow, just search for the channel name and click follow. It's
that easy. These readers make it easy to browse the list of feeds you're following in the sections
you create. And with Feedly specifically, they have what's called a today view.
In this view, Feedly combines all of my feeds into what you see in news feed apps, but importantly,
it's only showing you articles from sites and publications that you added. No more weird random
surprises. And you can change how the articles are sorted. You can have them sorted chronologically
or have a mix of chronological and popular articles. Feedly knows what other Feedly users
are reading, so it can determine what articles are actually popular from the publications that you
subscribe to. And you can set up Feedly in a way so it'll show you the popular articles first, when
you open up your today feed. And Feedly, at least the feed actually has an end. It's not endless,
which is one of the things I liked about Feedly compared to other RSS readers like Inoreader.
I've been trying to lessen my reliance on apps that use these infinity scrolling feeds,
but that's really hard to do. Because so many apps use this design, they're incentivized to keep
you using their apps for as long as possible. And endless scrolling feeds help them do that. They're
addicting your attention and to keep scrolling. And just the little friction that Feedly adds
into their scroll, with a checkbox that appears after you scroll through 15 or so articles,
you have an endpoint that can subtly signal to you that, "Hey, maybe now's a good time
to pause and go do something else." It's not sucking you into an endless scrolling feed.
Now, is there a catch with RSS readers and is everything about them free? Well, no, not exactly.
Most of the RSS readers have paid features that limit you to a certain number of feeds
you can follow or offer enticing features to try to get you to upgrade to a paid subscription. Like
for example, Feedly's integration with Pocket, another great app I use to save all of the stuff
I've read, or setting up Google keyword alerts. And many RSS readers, like Inoreader, as well as
Feedly, let you create RSS feeds for websites that don't actually have one, which is pretty cool.
So, not only can these RSS apps replace news aggregator apps like Google News, Apple News,
but I'd argue they can also replace Twitter for news gathering. But RSS apps can also do
a lot more things than those other apps. Now, recently, there has been a new news
aggregator app that has come on to the scene that I do want to get into
a little bit because I think it's a pretty intriguing app and that app is Artifact.
You may have heard of the new news aggregator app from the co-founders of Instagram, Mike Krieger
and Kevin Systrom. And fun fact, Kevin actually worked for Google as a product marketer on,
you guessed it, Google Reader. I've been testing out Artifact for weeks now and have been pretty
impressed with its AI summarization of articles feature and universal comments.
But most importantly, its feed has less crap in it. And for now,
no ads. Artifact curates news, publications, and stories up front, so they try to remove
as much clickbait as possible. You can also select the publications you subscribe to,
and Artifact will prioritize them in your feed. I really like the trends feature, where Artifact
will show me what it's noticed is trending. Out of all of the news aggregator apps I've
ever used, I have to admit that Artifact is pretty compelling. It's the best news app I've
used for discovering articles that I actually end up reading that I probably wouldn't have
seen otherwise. But is it good enough for me to completely switch away from an RSS reader?
No. Artifact has an infinite scrolling feed. And while the algorithm is better than most, I still
would like full control over the publications I'm shown. Plus, with the way I typically read,
I end up screwing up its article algorithm a bit by opening up a long-form article and
then sending it over to my Kindle, which is still my favorite device to read on.
Another thing I've also noticed is that Artifact will know that I clicked on the article,
but it doesn't actually know that I've completed it. Also, it's unclear how exactly Artifact plans
to make money in the long run. Will it plan to be ad-driven like other news aggregator apps? If so,
the incentive structures might be too misaligned for them to make
the necessary changes and to get rid of that infinite scroll for a healthier experience.
So, for now I'm definitely sticking with RSS and Feedly. And if you use an RSS reader or
you decide to make the switch, don't forget to add Six Months Later to your feed. I'll
leave our RSS links in the description below and links to sign up for our free newsletter.
Go hit that thumbs up button below and make sure to check out some of our other explainer
videos by clicking on the thumbnails here. For Six Months Later, I'm Josh Teder. Thanks for watching.