Tools for surfing the web

Here are a few tools I really think are essential as you go about the Web.

An RSS reader

Listen, it’s not the 2000s any more, you can’t be checking your favourite websites manually to see if they’ve updated. Not only shouldn’t you, but you won’t, and that means to keep up with anyone online you’re trapped on a social network you hate. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

An RSS reader is to blogs as your podcast app is to podcasts. If you’re interested in anything on the Web beyond the five giant corporate sites, an RSS reader does the checking for you.

I self-host an instance of FreshRSS, which I access through an API on my phone and laptop using NetNewsWire. I could use a reader like NetNewsWire alone, but an aggregator like FreshRSS allows me to sync un/read statuses and subscribed feeds between devices. And I can also visit my FreshRSS instance on the Web to browse, like webmail versus your mail app.

If “self-host” means nothing to you, just start out at The Old Reader or Inoreader, but be aware they have limits on their free tiers. FreshRSS is always free and works great — over at my webhost Kualo it was a one-click install. Once installed you can even have multiple accounts. Set it up and make an account for your friend, your partner or your sibling, so they don’t have to!

For a client app I used Reeder for ages, but personally prefer the old-school-Mac-app feeling of NetNewsWire, and a plus that it’s also free.

Every morning over my coffee^[1] I can thumb through a self-curated magazine of new long-form writing from writers I love, interesting links and comics. I have the columnists I look forward to reading once or twice a week, the heavy-hitting pieces which arrive a few times a year, the soap-opera comic strips. I even subscribe to my local independent newspaper.

If you want to subscribe to my blog with RSS, you can grab the link right at the bottom of every page.

Kill the Newsletter!

RSS has been consigned to the library of lost knowledge, and as such people have started distributing their blog by email.

But not you. You have the secret knowledge of RSS. But what good is this knowledge if your favourite writer just won’t leave their favourite hangout?

Kill the Newsletter! has got your back. With a couple of clicks you create an email address which forwards to a fresh RSSAtom feed. Subscribe in your reader of choice, and every time the author sends another newsletter, your RSS feed gets updated.