Meet Feedly: the most beautiful web-based RSS Reader

Meet Feedly: the most beautiful web-based RSS Reader

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Reading the news is part of most people’s morning routine. While our parents and grandparents used to grab the newspaper left on their porch to read it comfortably sat in their favourite recliner or at the table, a growing numbers of young adults prefer to read online news in front of their computer or on their iPad.

We’ve already stated in a previous article that RSS feeds were the most efficient way to stay up to date: thanks to them, it’s easy to categorize all your news and to keep tabs on what you’ve read and what you haven’t. RSS readers play the role of a personalized newspaper, filled only with the news from sites and blogs that interest you.

There are many RSS readers out there for you to choose from; some you can download to your computer, some for Android, iPhone or iPad only, and some you can access through your browser. And although many of them are great at sorting out the information you need, my all-time favourite is Feedly. Why? It does everything the other readers do and it has the most gorgeous interface of all.

 

Feedly

News that look good

I resisted using RSS readers for the longest time. Why? Because the interface of other aggregators sucks. I just couldn’t bring myself to browse through those ugly software and web-based readers that look like they were designed in 1995. Only recently has Google Reader updated its look and even if it does project an acceptable appearance now, it’s nothing compared to Feedly, an RSS reader that uses Google Reader’s technology in the background but displays it in a much nicer way.

Besides having a minimalist design and nice typography, Feedly also gives me many display options. Unlike Google Reader that allows me to choose only between reading titles and reading the whole article, Feedly’s view options include Magazine, Titles, Mosaic, Cards or Full Articles. Here’s why most RSS readers, including Google Reader, just don’t work for me; I NEED to see the images. If the image is appealing, only then I read its title. I easily have between 200-300 articles to sort through every morning and there is no way I will have the time to read every single title. Besides, I’m not interested in reading all of them. I’m a visual person, I need visually-appealing solutions and, unfortunately, not all aggregators are as visual-friendly as Feedly. For the ones who also like to customize their services, this reader enables you to change the colors as well. And although I’m more of a fan of the classic grey, it’s a very neat function for the ones who need to add some color to their life.

Feedly is not only good-looking and efficient; it’s also user-friendly. You can use the drag and drop function to organize your content and accomplish pretty much any task with a single click. This reader makes the experience of reading news quite pleasant. Feedly is available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, iOS and Android.

 

If you think I’m wrong and that the RSS reader you use is better, I invite you to share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

About the author

Tina Mailhot-Roberge is a graphic designer, illustrator and co-founder of Veodesign. She holds a BFA in Design from Concordia University, Montréal. She loves to help people and wirte about arts, design, web and technology. Find her on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.