Hello,
Looking for recommendations for Google News alternatives. I’m getting frustrated with the feed getting populated with sources, articles, or subjects I’m not interested in. Spend more time filtering out the crap I don’t care about than actually looking at articles.
I don’t mind having suggestions on my feed, but Google’s algorithm is way off for me. I’m interested in tech, PC hardware, and video games mostly. But I’m getting recommendations for wrestling, a LOT of politics, and weird “reality tv” show news.
Kinda done with it now.
Try Hacker News, it’s similar to Reddit/Lemmy (upvotes, downvotes, recursive comments), except more focused on tech news and random interesting articles. You can either read it at https://news.ycombinator.com or use a native client like the ones listed here: https://github.com/cheeaun/awesome-hacker-news
Not exactly what you’re asking, but might be useful.
In 2020, during the pandemic, I decided to reduce my news consumption. My problem wasn’t just the quality/subjects, but also the quantity, so I changed my behaviour and the way I consumed news. I went from using apps like Google News to use a mix of RSS feeds, podcasts, and platforms like this one.
- There are a few sites that write about subjects I like, so I subscribe to their feed. Sometimes I subscribe to the complete feed, sometimes only to a category’s feed. A bit similar to “Google News”, but with the sites I want.
- Hacker News and Reddit (and now Lemmy) is a good source for technology in general and specific areas (in Reddit/Lemmy’s case).
- For regular news (politics, occurrences, etc), I subscribe to 2 weekly podcasts and that gives me the main points of that week (and 2 different point of views).
- Initially I had subscribed to a weekly newsletter digest as some of news sites here have them, but I ended up with the podcasts as I can listen to them while doing something else.
Apps that displayed news and didn’t let me hide them where either removed or replaced. Radio stations also have the habit of having news, so I mostly stream music these days. I also don’t watch news on TV.
I check my feeds and HN/Reddit/Lemmy at least once a day, usually in the morning. Podcasts… it’s when I have the time.
I was using Feeder for RSS feeds, but I wanted something online/cross-platform, so I use Feedly. For podcasts, I only use it on my phone, so AntennaPod is fine.
I don’t need to know everything or need the constant drama. I don’t want hot takes on “breaking news”, to know what someone some random sports dude said or with whom some celebrity went out with. I also don’t want to be always checking the news. It won’t work for everyone, but works well for me.
