RSS is still the best way to follow a website, when the website has a feed. But many don't, and you shouldn't have to give up on a site because of that. FeedBro uses the feed when there is one, and watches the page itself when there isn't.
What RSS gives you
A feed is the site's own list of its latest posts, in a form a reader understands. Because the site publishes it, it is exact: each post has its title, link, date and often its text. That is why a feed is the most reliable thing to follow, and why FeedBro always looks for one first.
Why you may not find one
- Some sites never offered a feed, or removed it in a redesign.
- Some hide it, so the usual RSS icon isn't there.
- Many pages are not "blogs" at all: shops, careers pages and company news sections are lists of new things, but not feeds.
What FeedBro does about it
- It looks for the feed so you don't have to. It reads the page's header and links, tries the usual addresses, and checks the sitemap. If you type a feed address that is wrong, it looks from the site's home page.
- If there is none, it watches the page. FeedBro finds the list of posts or products on the page, works out where each title, link, date and picture is, and brings in each new one as an article.
You don't pick one or the other. Paste the address, and FeedBro does what the site allows.
Feed or page: what is different?
- A feed comes from the site itself, so it is the most exact. Full text and summaries work best with it.
- A watched page is read from what the page shows, so it depends on the page's layout. If a site redesigns, FeedBro looks again and finds the list again, and tells you if it can't.
So do you need RSS?
You don't need to know about it. You only need the website you want to follow. FeedBro handles the rest, and you read everything in one place. To try it, follow a website that has no feed, or read how FeedBro finds the feed for you.
