Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is still alive and an easy way of monitoring new content on a wide range of various websites.

About

RSS is an xml file type the data for which can be displayed on a regular website plus also an RSS feed. Users can subscribe to that feed which can be displayed in a news aggregator. Some aggregators have some additional features that can help you manage your experience with the feeds.

Benefits

There are some technical benefits that RSS feeds have but apart from that:

1. You can just receive a summary of the news, most often without adverts, then click to go to the full version on the corresponding website.
2. It saves time going from one website to another when everything is displayed in the same application.
3. You see exactly what the source is providing without an algorithm to divert you elsewhere.
4. The tracking is not so prevalent as is on social media.
5. Updates in real time. When a new story arrives it will appear in your aggregator.
6. You don’t have to be logged into another tool or payment gateway to connect to the stories
7. Some say it lessens the dependency on social media because you see the real stories straight away without the unwanted commentary.

News Aggregators

Following are two news aggregators that I used.

NetNewsWire

This can be installed on a Mac, iPhone or iPad. A free open source RSS reader. It was originally created in 2002 and the developer continues to work hard on it, as per this blog entry.

I have this installed on my Mac and iPhone, a software program I could not do without.

NetNewsWire Website

News Blur

This is a web based RSS reader but they have apps for Apple devices. I am not keen on the app. This service is free as long as you don’t go over 65 feeds.

For me, the best part of this service are the notifications. Whenever a new item is added to a feed you can receive a notification for it, such as via email. Obviously you may not want to do that for a feed that has many new entries per day otherwise your inbox will get jammed.

News Blur Website

Feeds

I subscribe to quite a few feeds but below are some suggested ones to get started. I list the main website followed by the RSS feed. Copy and paste the RSS feed address into your news aggregator.

Art

British Museum
Web: https://www.britishmuseum.org/
RSS Feed: https://www.britishmuseum.org/articles/blog/feed

Design Boom
Web: https://www.designboom.com/
RSS Feed: https://www.designboom.com/feed/

Museum of Oxford
Web: https://museumofoxford.org/
RSS Feed: https://museumofoxford.org/feed

Science Museum
Web: https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/
RSS Feed: https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/feed/

Smithsonian Magazine
Web: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/
RSS Feed: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/rss/blog/national-museum-of-natural-history/

Victoria and Albert Museum
Web: https://www.vam.ac.uk
RSS Feed: https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/feed

Comics

2000AD
Web: https://2000ad.com/news/
RSS Feed: https://2000ad.com/feed/

Comic Book Resources (CBR)
Web: https://www.cbr.com/
RSS Feed: https://www.cbr.com/feed/

The Comics Journal
Web: https://www.tcj.com/
RSS Feed: https://www.tcj.com/feed/

Comic List
Web: https://ncrl.blogspot.com/
RSS Feed: https://feeds.feedburner.com/comiclistfeed

Forbidden Planet
Web: https://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/
RSS Feed: https://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/feed/

Environment

Earthquakes Canada
Web: https://www.earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/index-en.php
RSS Feed: https://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/cache/earthquakes/canada-en.atom

Extinction Rebellion
Web: https://rebellion.global/
RSS Feed: https://rebellion.global/rss.xml

Greenpeace
Web: https://www.greenpeace.org/international
RSS Feed: https://www.greenpeace.org/international/feed/

Met Office
Web: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/
List of RSS Feeds: https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/guides/rss
RSS Feed for UK: https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/public/data/PWSCache/WarningsRSS/Region/UK

Humanist

The Friendly Atheist
Web: https://www.friendlyatheist.com/
RSS Feed: https://www.friendlyatheist.com/feed

Humour

The Borowitz Report
Web: https://www.borowitzreport.com/
RSS Feed: https://www.borowitzreport.com/feed

News

BBC News
Web: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news
RSS Feed: http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml

BBC News UK
Web: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk
RSS Feed: http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/uk/rss.xml

CBC News
Web: https://www.cbc.ca/news/
RSS Feed: https://www.cbc.ca/cmlink/rss-topstories

The Tyee Canada
Web: https://thetyee.ca/
RSS Feed: https://thetyee.ca/rss2.xml

Politics

Malcolm Nance Black Man Spy Podcast
Web: https://malcolmnance.substack.com/
RSS Feed: https://malcolmnance.substack.com/feed

Tech

BBC Tech
Web: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology
RSS Feed: http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/technology/rss.xml

CNet
Web: https://www.cnet.com/
RSS Feed: https://www.cnet.com/rss/news/

Mac Tech
Web: https://www.mactech.com/
RSS Feed: https://www.mactech.com/feed/

Softpedia
Web: https://mac.softpedia.com/
RSS Feed: https://mac.softpedia.com/backend.xml

YouTube

There is the ability to create RSS feeds from YouTube channels. I don’t want to subscribe to notifications from Google and keep going back to their website so this method is adventageous to me.

All feeds start with: https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=
Then you have to find the channel ID on the YouTube site, for example:
1. Go to the BBC News YouTube page – https://www.youtube.com/@BBCNews
2. In the site description “Breaking news, live updates…” click on “more”
3. Click on “Share channel” at the bottom of the pop up
4. Click on “Copy channel ID”, in case of BBC News it is UC16niRr50-MSBwiO3YDb3RA

So, the full RSS feed for BBC News would be https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UC16niRr50-MSBwiO3YDb3RA

Repeat the same actions for any YouTube channel you wish to create an RSS feed for.