It has been 12 years since Google shut down Google Reader, its popular RSS news reader. The rise of social media newsfeeds had rendered RSS useless for many people, and declining usage led Google to sunset it.

But RSS feeds never went away. Many websites still make them available; they're baked into most blogging utilities; and podcasting relies heavily on RSS feeds for distribution of audio and video files.

As algorithms determine what you see in social networks, and newsletter subscriptions require visits to your inbox, where your newsletters are mixed in with all your other emails, RSS news readers are making a comeback. New news readers are emerging, and older ones are making improvements with a range of features, including the incorporation of AI to assist with sorting and other tasks.

In this short midweek FIR episode, Neville and Shel explore the benefits of RSS, examine some of the features of the latest crop of readers, and discuss how an RSS resurgence can benefit communicators.
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The post FIR #475: Algorithms Got You Down? Get Retro with RSS! appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.