When Google Reader was popular I used to use it along with an app called Reeder for Mac that helped me keep track of my RSS feeds. I was recently excited to learn that Reeder 3 is now free. Given my increasing dissatisfaction with the updated Twitter, Facebook, and Apple News apps, I thought it would be worth trying again.

RSS may have been wounded by Google Reader’s death but it definitely was not killed. While the RSS features I used in my Safari browser no longer exist, a plug-in lets me easily detect and add feeds to the Feedly service I am trying in its stead. It took some time to add feeds from the places I like to browse, but now I have many of the websites I was manually visiting in a single place again. Most news sites continue to provide RSS feeds and Reeder App provides an easy way to read full articles without all the cruft from the site itself.

Ultimately the best thing about RSS is it still works and it works well. I can add blogs and websites to it and get updates without manually needing to check back with them. My feed reader is full of many more interesting articles than my Facebook and Twitter feeds are these days. Finally I have total control over what appears in my reader. As Facebook and Twitter continue to favor native content over being content discovery platforms, RSS readers are once again the best option for curious people.