RSS: The Quiet Technology That Could Save the Web From Itself

The modern web has become a frustrating landscape of interstitial ads, cookie consent popups, and paywalls disguised as content. What was once a space of information freedom has gradually transformed into an environment designed to extract attention and revenue at every turn. Yet within this increasingly hostile digital environment, a technology from the web's early days offers a compelling alternative: RSS.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) emerged in the late 1990s as a simple XML-based format for distributing content. It allows publishers to syndicate their content in a standardized format that can be consumed by specialized applications called RSS readers. For users, RSS provides a clean, ad-free way to subscribe to content from multiple sources in a single interface.

The golden age of RSS arguably began in 2007 when Google released Google Reader, a free, reliable RSS reader that quickly became the dominant platform in the space. Google Reader's success created a network effect where most users gravitated toward it, making it increasingly difficult for competitors to gain traction. This dominance, however, also created a single point of failure.

In 2013, Google abruptly shut down Google Reader, a move that remains controversial to this day. The timing coincided with Google's aggressive push to compete with Facebook through Google+, a social networking platform that ultimately failed. As Cory Doctorow suggests in his recent article, "I have a sneaking suspicion that someone at Google realized that Reader's core functionality (helping users discover, share and discuss interesting new web pages) was exactly the kind of thing Google wanted us to use G+ for, and so they killed Reader in a bid to drive us to the stalled-out service they'd bet the company on."

This strategic decision had profound consequences for the web. With Google Reader gone, many casual users abandoned RSS, even though the underlying technology continued to be supported by countless websites. WordPress, Ghost, Substack, Tumblr, Medium, Bluesky, and Mastodon all continue to publish RSS feeds by default. Wikipedia offers RSS feeds for page edits, and even shipping companies provide RSS feeds for package tracking.

The persistence of RSS feeds across platforms demonstrates a fundamental truth: RSS is not a technology that can be easily killed because it serves a basic need in the content ecosystem. It provides a machine-readable way for publishers to notify subscribers about new content, a function that remains valuable regardless of corporate strategies.

For users, RSS offers a compelling alternative to the modern web experience. As Doctorow notes, "much of the web (including some of the cruftiest, most enshittified websites) publish full-text RSS feeds, meaning that you can read their articles right there in your RSS reader, with no ads, no popups, no nag-screens asking you to sign up for a newsletter, verify your age, or submit to their terms of service."

The experience of reading content through an RSS reader is fundamentally different from browsing the modern web. Articles appear as clean text, free from the visual clutter that has become standard on most websites. There are no autoplay videos, no infinite scroll designed to maximize engagement, and no dark patterns designed to manipulate user behavior.

Beyond the aesthetic improvements, RSS offers functional benefits as well. By aggregating content from multiple sources in a single interface, RSS eliminates the context switching required when visiting numerous individual websites. Most RSS readers also provide filtering and organization features that allow users to prioritize content based on their interests.

For those willing to go beyond basic RSS readers, additional tools can further improve the web experience. Firefox's built-in Reader View re-renders web pages as clean text, while extensions like Activate Reader View make this functionality available on pages that don't natively support it. For particularly problematic websites, tools like Kill Sticky can remove intrusive elements that follow users as they scroll, while Javascript Toggle can prevent problematic scripts from running at all.

These tools represent a technical response to what Doctorow terms "enshittification"—the deliberate degradation of digital services to maximize extraction. Rather than accepting degraded services as inevitable, these tools empower users to reclaim control over their browsing experience.

The challenge, however, is that these solutions primarily work on desktop browsers. Mobile platforms remain significantly more locked down, with iOS browsers being essentially reskinned versions of Safari due to Apple's restrictions on competing browser engines. This creates a two-tiered system where desktop users can customize their experience, while mobile users are largely at the mercy of platform owners and app developers.

The situation is particularly dire with native apps, which Doctorow describes as "websites skinned in the right kind of IP to make it a crime to improve it in any way." Apps often open external links in their own browsers, defeating many of the ad-blocking and content-filtering tools that work in standard browsers.

Despite these limitations, RSS remains a powerful tool for those seeking a better web experience. Numerous RSS readers continue to be developed and maintained, ranging from web-based services like Feedly to desktop applications like Newsblur (which Doctorow has used since 2011) to open-source options like Tiny Tiny RSS.

The resurgence of interest in RSS represents a broader pushback against the commercialization of the web. As users become increasingly aware of how their attention is being monetized, many are seeking alternatives that prioritize their needs over those of advertisers and platform owners.

RSS also offers a potential path forward for independent publishers struggling against the dominance of social media algorithms. By providing a direct channel to readers, RSS allows publishers to maintain relationships without relying on platforms that may change their policies or algorithms at any time.

The technology behind RSS has also evolved over time. Modern RSS readers often support additional protocols like JSON Feed, which offers a more flexible alternative to XML. Some platforms are experimenting with combining RSS with other technologies to create more interactive experiences while maintaining the user-friendly nature of feeds.

For developers, RSS remains a valuable tool for integrating content from external sources into applications. The simplicity and widespread support of RSS make it an ideal choice for scenarios where content needs to be syndicated across different systems.

As we look to the future of the web, technologies like RSS offer a vision of what could be: an internet that serves human needs rather than extracting value from users. While the trend toward "enshittification" continues, the persistence of RSS demonstrates that there are alternatives, and that users have more power than they often realize to shape their digital experiences.

The choice to use RSS is not merely a technical one; it's a statement about the kind of internet we want to create. By choosing RSS, users and publishers alike can participate in a web that prioritizes content over commerce, substance over style, and user agency over platform control.

In an era where the web increasingly feels like a hostile environment designed to extract rather than serve, RSS stands as a quiet but powerful reminder of what the internet could be: a space for sharing knowledge, ideas, and creativity without the constant friction and frictionless exploitation that has come to characterize so much of the digital experience.