What you need to know about Feedly Cloud and its web interface

Martin Brinkmann
Jun 19, 2013
Updated • Jun 27, 2019
Internet
|
15

The RSS news reader Feedly has been regarded by many as one of the most promising Google Reader alternatives. If users had something to criticize, it was that Feedly did not make available a web interface that users could access regardless of platform they were using and without having to install browser extensions or apps to do so.

The Feedly team announced today that it has published the first public version of the service's web interface. Feedly Cloud enables you to access the feed reader in the browser without using plugins, browser extensions or apps.

You can sign in to Feedly using your Google Account and if you have already added content to the service previously, you should see those subscriptions on the web interface as well. The articles on the other hand appear to be pulled from their sources the minute you start using the service and not before.

You can also create an account directly on the site or use other authentication options, e.g. by signing up using your Twitter account.

What some may not like as much is that you can only use the service if you sign in using your Google Account. I could not find an option to register an account directly on the site without ties to Google.

This may not be problematic for Google Reader users who may want to migrate their feed subscriptions to Feedly anyway, but if you are a new user you may not want the Google account linked to the service.

Feedly announced that it will add Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and LinkedIn authentication later on.

You can import your Google Reader subscriptions right on the front page of the service. Just enter your password here and follow the wizard to get started.

The web interface looks exactly like the browser extension powered interface. You can change the format right at the top. The available formats are:

  • Titles: the most compact format. The publisher, article title, a couple of words of the article and time are displayed here.
  • Magazine: displays thumbnail images, titles, the publisher and the first paragraph of the article sorted by publisher.
  • Timeline:  uses a similar layout as magazine but sorted by time instead of publisher.
  • Cards: resembles the layout on Google+ and other social networking sites.
  • Full articles: all articles are displayed in full (or as excerpts depending on how they are delivered).

You load the preferences from the side menu. Just move the mouse cursor to the left side of the screen and wait until it is fully displayed. Locate preferences here and click on the option.

The following options are made available here:

  • Start Page: set the start page to Today, All or Index.
  • Default View: set the default view mode to titles, magazine, cards or full articles.
  • Categories with no updates: show or hide.
  • Featured articles: display popular articles based on Google+ or Facebook on top, or not.
  • Giant Mark as Read: display a big mark as read button, or not.
  • Auto-Mark as read on scroll: only in full articles view, all views, or not at all.
  • Header font: Helvetica or Sans-Serif.
  • Essentials: Set the default language for the explore and essentials pages.
  • Optimizer: optimize featured articles, yes or no.
  • Read and unread links colors.
  • Integrate Pinterest.
  • Add Twitter postfix when sharing posts on Twitter.
  • Enable Feedly Mini sharing toolbar?
  • Exclude sites from the toolbar and set its bottom spacing.
  • Include a Facebook or Twitter news feed in the side area?
  • Finance Module stocks to trace.
  • Confirm mark as read and unsubscribe.
  • Display contextual menu when you select text.

You can switch to one of the available themes from the left sidebar menu as well. Note that this affects only the background color that surrounds the main content area.

Frequently Asked Questions

Syncing

The contents of Feedly's mobile apps and the web interface sync automatically. If you read an article on the web or in the app, it is marked read everywhere.

Importing Feeds

It is currently only possible to import feeds from Google Reader. While you can add individual feeds using the add content button, you cannot import an opml feed list right now. The only option around this would be to import the feed list into Google Reader first (as long as it is still available) to import it to Feedly then.

Browser compatibility

Feedly does not require browser extensions anymore on desktop systems. This means that you can now also access the service using previously unsupported browsers such as Internet Explorer or Opera.

Browser extensions?

There is no need to install a browser extension anymore. It is not really clear what will happen with them in the future. Users who are using the extension will be upgraded to the company's own cloud solution. Additional information about the migration are available here.

Monetization?

There are not any ads on Feedly right now. One way the company aims to make money is its monetization program that it will make available. It is not really clear how this will work out though. You find additional information on Feedly's publisher page.

Summary
What you need to know about Feedly Cloud and its web interface
Article Name
What you need to know about Feedly Cloud and its web interface
Description
A look at the first cloud-based version of the RSS feed reader Feedly that allowed users to read RSS feed articles online.
Author
Publisher
Ghacks Technology News
Logo
Advertisement

Tutorials & Tips


Previous Post: «
Next Post: «

Comments

  1. ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
    Reply

    Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on August 4, 2012 at 7:57 pm
      Reply

      Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.

    2. Leonidas Burton said on September 4, 2023 at 4:51 am
      Reply

      I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
      http://www.google.com/saved

  2. VioletMoon said on August 16, 2023 at 5:26 pm
    Reply

    @Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!

  3. Karl said on August 17, 2023 at 10:36 pm
    Reply

    @Martin

    The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
    https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/

    Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.

  4. Anonymous said on August 25, 2023 at 11:44 am
    Reply

    Omg a badge!!!
    Some tangible reward lmao.

    It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.

  5. Scroogled said on August 25, 2023 at 10:57 pm
    Reply

    With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.

    1. lollmaoeven said on August 27, 2023 at 6:24 am
      Reply

      This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)

  6. El Duderino said on August 25, 2023 at 11:14 pm
    Reply

    Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.

    And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.

  7. John G. said on August 26, 2023 at 1:29 am
    Reply

    First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm

    For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[

  8. Kalmly said on August 26, 2023 at 4:42 pm
    Reply

    Yes. Please. Fix the comments.

  9. Kim Schmidt said on September 3, 2023 at 3:42 pm
    Reply

    With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.

    Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.

    The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.

    If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.

    And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.

Leave a Reply

Check the box to consent to your data being stored in line with the guidelines set out in our privacy policy

We love comments and welcome thoughtful and civilized discussion. Rudeness and personal attacks will not be tolerated. Please stay on-topic.
Please note that your comment may not appear immediately after you post it.