Google Reader is kind of coming back to Chrome thanks to a new Follow button

Remember when every browser used to have an RSS reader for feed aggregation? Those days are behind us, but they might be coming back for Google’s Chrome browser on Android as the search giant is trialing a new “Follow” feature that’s RSS in all but name.

Once it goes into the public builds, the “Follow” button will show up in that three-dot menu at the top-right corner that houses all of the menus Google thinks you don’t need to see all the time.

The button will also show the name of the website, and the favicon, and works like subscribing to an RSS feed used to, just in card form.

The New Tab page will gain a “Following” tab to show off content from the websites you “Follow,” in card form with cover images, headlines, and the publishing time. It’s a more curated version of the “For you” tab, with only sites that you “Follow” showing up.

Sites you “Follow” will also show up in the “For you” feed, but you’ll get algorithm content there as well based on your usual browsing history.

The thing is, you’ll need to use the Canary build of Chrome to see it, which is the “bleeding edge” version of Chrome. That means it’ll probably crash, so you might want to wait to see if Google decides to bring “Follow” to the public builds of Chrome.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere. His hobbies include photography, animation, and hoarding Reddit gold.