There already is: RSS.
Already available in the Android app, and coming soon to iOS, the new view sorts updates chronologically.
Reader let you follow updates to almost any site on the web.
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Youd just click a button on a page, and it would be added to your Reader.
It was great, popular, and completely open.
And, amazingly, all of this is still possible today.
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Google Reader ran on something called RSS.
And yet almost nobody uses it.
Not only can RSS be hard to explain, but it lacks any kind of identity.
When Google Reader was shuttered, users believed it was the end of everything.
In reality, they could have exported their list of feeds and taken them elsewhere.
Some stories will be surfaced by retweets, but in general, youll miss more than you catch.
RSS reading has the traditional values of the internet: its decentralized and nobody controls it.
New posts appear in feeds, complete with a summary and often an image.
And there they sit, until you read or dismiss them.
So, why dont more of us use RSS?
Maybe it just needs better branding.
Youll see follow buttons for Twitter and Facebook.
There may also be an RSS icon, like an orange Wi-Fi icon turned 45 degrees.
NetNewsWire
The reality is you’re free to already do this today.
And then there are many RSS reader apps that can sync with those services.
And yet few people use them.
Wordpress still has it built in, andmost web publishing is built on Wordpress.
Plus, the underlying technology of RSS is more popular than ever.
“RSS and RSS reading are not the same thing.
RSS is super-mainstream in the form of podcasts,” says Simmons.
“But note how Apples podcast directory played, and plays, such an important role there.”
