Showing posts from March 18, 2026
NewsBlur

Story clustering: automatically group duplicate stories across your feeds https://ift.tt/SCrk2z4 If you subscribe to more than a handful of news feeds, you’ve hit this problem: a story breaks, and suddenly the same headline appears across five, ten, twenty of your subscriptions. You’re reading the same article over and over, just published by different outlets. Your river view fills up with duplicates, and the stories you haven’t read yet get buried. Story clustering solves this. When NewsBlur detects that multiple feeds are covering the same story, it groups them together and shows you the highest-scoring version. The duplicates don’t disappear – they fold neatly underneath, so you can still see who else reported it and jump to their version if you want a different perspective. How it works In the story titles list, clustered stories show their sources directly below the representative story. Each source shows the feed’s favicon, feed name, story title, and how long ago it was published. Click any source to read that version instead. When you open a clustered story, the detail view shows rich cards for each alternative source at the bottom. These cards include the feed icon, story title, a content preview, the article’s thumbnail image, author, and date. Click any card to jump to that version of the story. Two layers of detection Clustering uses two complementary approaches to catch duplicates: Title matching is the fast, obvious check. NewsBlur normalizes story titles (lowercasing, stripping punctuation) and groups exact matches. But it also does fuzzy matching using significant-word overlap – so “Apple Announces New iPhone” and “Apple Reveals the New iPhone at WWDC” will still cluster together, even though the titles aren’t identical. Semantic matching goes deeper. NewsBlur sends each story’s title to Elasticsearch’s more_like_this query, searching across all your subscribed feeds for articles covering the same topic. This catches stories that are about the same event but written with completely different headlines. The two layers are merged, so title matches and semantic matches combine into a single cluster. Clustering runs automatically in the background every time a feed updates. Results are cached for 14 days, so clusters are ready instantly when you load your river. Mark duplicates as read When you read a clustered story, you can optionally have NewsBlur mark all the duplicates as read too. This is off by default – enable it in the feed options popover under “Story Clustering” or in Manage > Preferences > Stories. There are two controls: Cluster related stories / Keep stories separate – Toggles clustering on or off. When enabled, duplicate stories are grouped in your river view. When disabled, every story appears individually as before. Mark all as read / Keep others unread – When you read the representative story, this controls whether the other stories in the cluster are automatically marked as read. The same options are available in the global Preferences dialog under the Stories tab. Availability Story clustering is available to all NewsBlur users on the web. If a feed you subscribe to has cluster data, you’ll see grouped stories automatically – no configuration needed. Premium Archive subscribers get full control over clustering: toggle it on or off, choose between single-line and expanded preview styles, and automatically mark duplicate stories as read when you read the representative story. Clustering is enabled by default for archive subscribers. Premium and free users see clustered stories on popular feeds where cluster data already exists. You’ll see clusters most often on widely-subscribed news feeds. To unlock clustering settings and get clustering across all your feeds, upgrade to Premium Archive. If you have feedback or ideas for improvements, please share them on the NewsBlur forum. March 18, 2026

byWORLDWIN INTERNATIONAL -

Story clustering: automatically group duplicate stories across your feeds by via The NewsBlur B…

NewsBlur

Web Feeds: Turn any website into an RSS feed http://localhost:4000/2026/03/13/web-feeds/ Not every website has an RSS feed. Some never did. Some had one years ago and quietly removed it. And some sites have content that updates regularly but was never structured as a feed in the first place: job boards, product listings, event calendars, changelog pages. Until now, if a site didn’t offer RSS, you were out of luck. Web Feeds is a new feature that creates RSS feeds from any website. Point it at a URL, and NewsBlur analyzes the page structure, identifies the repeating content patterns, and generates extraction rules that turn the page into a live feed. It works on news sites, blogs, job boards, product pages, or really anything with a list of items that changes over time. This is a huge feature and has been requested for years. I’m so thrilled to finally be able to offer it in a way that I feel comfortable with. Other solutions including having you select story titles on a re-hosted version of the page, but it was clumsy and error-prone. This way, we use LLMs to figure out what the story titles are likely to be, present the variations to you, and then let you decide what’s right. So much better! How it works Open the Add + Discover Sites page and click the Web Feed tab. Paste a URL and click Analyze. NewsBlur fetches the page, strips out navigation and boilerplate, and analyzes the HTML structure. Within a few seconds, you’ll see multiple extraction variants, each representing a different content pattern found on the page. Progress updates stream in real-time while the analysis runs. NewsBlur typically finds 3-5 different extraction patterns on a page. The first variant is usually the main content (article list, blog posts, product grid), but sometimes the page has multiple distinct sections worth subscribing to. Each variant shows a label, a description of what it captures, and a preview of 3 extracted stories so you can see exactly what you’d get. Select the variant that matches what you want to follow, pick a folder, and subscribe. NewsBlur will re-fetch and re-extract the page on a regular schedule, just like any other feed. Story hints Sometimes the initial best guess isn’t what you’re looking for. Maybe the page has a blog section and a job listings section, and you want the jobs. Click the Refine button and type a hint like “I’m looking for the job postings.” NewsBlur re-analyzes the page with your hint in mind and reorders the variants to prioritize what you described. What gets extracted For each story, NewsBlur extracts whatever it can find: title, link, content snippet, image, author, and date. Not every field will be available on every site, and that’s fine. At minimum you’ll get titles and links. The extraction uses XPath expressions, which means it’s precise and consistent across page refreshes as long as the site’s HTML structure stays the same. When things change Websites redesign. HTML structures shift. When NewsBlur detects that the extraction rules have stopped working (after 3 consecutive failures), the feed is flagged as needing re-analysis. You’ll see a feed exception indicator, and you can re-analyze the page with one click to generate updated extraction rules. Use cases Some examples of sites that work well with Web Feeds: Company blogs without RSS — Many corporate blogs dropped their RSS feeds years ago. Web Feeds brings them back. Job boards — Track new postings on a company’s careers page. Government sites — Follow press releases, meeting agendas, or public notices. Changelog pages — Monitor when a tool or service ships updates. Event listings — Keep tabs on upcoming concerts, conferences, or local events. Product pages — Watch for new arrivals or restocks on stores that don’t offer feeds. Availability Web Feeds are available to Premium Archive and Premium Pro subscribers. The ongoing feed fetching and extraction runs on NewsBlur’s servers like any other feed. If you have feedback or ideas for improvements, please share them on the NewsBlur forum. March 13, 2026

byWORLDWIN INTERNATIONAL -

Web Feeds: Turn any website into an RSS feed by via The NewsBlur Blog http://localhost:4000/202…

NewsBlur

NewsBlur iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe updates: Major redesign, discover related sites, new story toolbar, and much, much more http://localhost:4000/2026/03/05/newsblur-v14-for-ios-and-mac/ This is a hefty redesign and rethinking of the NewsBlur iOS and Mac app. Every screen has been rethought, from the login page to the story detail to the intelligence trainer. This release adds full support for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe, along with several features that were previously web-only: Discover Related Sites, Ask AI, the Dashboard, and Premium Pro. Here’s what’s new: iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe NewsBlur is built for the latest Apple platforms. The toolbar is transparent and fades as you scroll. The column layout has been simplified to “feeds beside” or “feeds over” the story detail. On iPad, a new draggable divider lets you resize the feeds and stories columns, and the sidebar auto-collapses when space gets tight. On Mac, the sidebar auto-hides and trackpad swipe gestures work throughout the app. The default theme is now Auto, so NewsBlur follows your system appearance out of the box. Dark mode correctly overrides the window style to stay consistent with whatever NewsBlur theme you’ve chosen. A warmer sepia theme The Sepia theme has been completely reworked with warmer tones that are easier on the eyes for long reading sessions. The theme selector itself has been rewritten across all menus, with improved contrast on the pill buttons so you can clearly see which theme is active. Story titles pill bar The top of the story list now has a pill bar with quick access to Discover, Options, Search, and Mark Read. The search bar slides in and out instead of fading, and the mark-read button has a wider tap target with an optional confirmation step. Discover related sites Discover Related Sites lets you find related feeds from any feed or folder. Tap the Discover button in the new story titles pill bar, browse what’s available, and try a feed before subscribing with a preview banner. List and magazine views Two new story layout options join the existing Grid view. List shows compact rows for scanning headlines quickly. Magazine shows taller rows with larger thumbnails, giving you a richer preview of each story without opening it. Switch between them from the story titles pill bar. Dashboard The Dashboard sits at the top of your feed list and shows stories from your favorite feeds, updated every five minutes. Add, remove, and rearrange feeds to build a personal front page that keeps you current throughout the day. It’s the first thing you see when you open the app, and it updates in the background so fresh stories are always waiting. Redesigned login, preferences, and upgrade The login screen now features animated Metal shader waves with a frosted glass card. Preferences have moved from the old InAppSettingsKit to a new native SwiftUI PreferencesView. The Premium upgrade screen has been redesigned to include Ask AI integration and the new Premium Pro tier. Share, Trainer, and Ask AI dialogs are presented as swipeable sheets on iPhone with grabber handles, replacing the old full-screen modals. The sync indicator has moved from a large HUD to a subtle top-right nav bar dot. Ask AI Ask AI brings the same AI-powered Q&A from the web to your phone and Mac. Select a story, tap Ask AI, and ask questions about it. Summarize a long article in one sentence, get the backstory on a developing situation, or fact-check a claim. Pick from multiple AI models and keep the conversation going with follow-ups. Push notifications with feed favicons Push notifications now show your feed’s favicon alongside the notification using Communication Notifications. At a glance, you can tell which feed a story came from before you even open it. Everything else Beyond the headline features, this release includes a long list of improvements and fixes across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Improvements Pinch-to-zoom images to full-sized Quick Look preview in any story. Mark Story Read options: mark read on scroll, on selection, after an interval, or manually. Premium Pro tier added to the iOS upgrade dialog with higher limits. Custom feed and folder icons now supported on iOS. Unmute support for individual feeds. Collapse-all and expand-all button on All Site Stories. Modernized menu bar on Mac and iPad with keyboard shortcuts. Icons added to context menus on Mac and iPad. Redesigned story action buttons with modern styling. Text, URL, and regex classifiers added to the iOS Intelligence Trainer. Compact story title cells with equalized vertical spacing in list view. Fetching/offline banner moved from bottom overlay to top of story titles. Feed list search bar replaced with a compact text field. Scroll-to-hide toolbar synced with swipe-back gestures. Sidebar toggle buttons for showing and hiding the feed list. Redesigned Add Site as a SwiftUI half-height sheet with autocomplete. Story traverse bar and feed bar fade gradually as you scroll. Mac Catalyst: dismiss modals via overlay tap or Escape key. Mac Catalyst: trackpad swipe gesture support. Improved theme selector pill contrast for medium and light themes. Show toolbar when tapping status bar to scroll to top. Fixes Fixed WebSocket disconnects from EIO4 protocol and session lifecycle issues. Fixed story width rendering wider than viewport on first load on iPhone. Fixed memory issues with PINCache cost limits. Fixed offline queue priority inversion. Fixed saved stories showing incorrect read/unread status. Fixed YouTube Error 153 with HTTPS and inlined resources. Fixed trainer popover showing empty content on first open. Fixed crashes with custom feed icons in story detail. Fixed blank statistics modal by adding missing JS globals. Fixed white flash and navbar color mismatch when opening stories in dark themes. Fixed sepia theme yellow tint on Mac Catalyst. Fixed (null) username and missing avatar when sharing on Mac Catalyst. Fixed Catalyst pill bar AppKit chrome artifacts. Fixed Mac traverse bar layout, highlights, and previous button state. Fixed Discover popover placement on Mac and iPad. Fixed mark-read pill confirmation. Fixed status bar color and liquid glass gradient boundary. Fixed stale collapsed folder unread counts on iPad. Fixed stale story responses when switching folders quickly on iPad. Fixed Mac Catalyst split divider limited to grab handle area. NewsBlur for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe is available now on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. If you have feedback or run into issues, I’d love to hear about it on the NewsBlur forum. March 5, 2026

byWORLDWIN INTERNATIONAL -

NewsBlur iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe updates: Major redesign, discover related sites, new story tool…

NewsBlur

Add + Discover Sites: YouTube, Reddit, podcasts, newsletters, and thousands of feeds to explore http://localhost:4000/2026/03/04/add-and-discover-sites/ NewsBlur has always been great at reading feeds. But finding new ones? That was mostly on you. The old “Add Site” dialog was a search box and not much else. If you already had a feed URL, it worked fine. If you were looking for something new to read, you were on your own. The new Add + Discover Sites page changes that. It’s a full-page discovery experience with eight tabs covering YouTube channels, Reddit communities, podcasts, newsletters, Google News topics, trending sites, popular feeds, and of course the classic search-and-subscribe workflow. There are over 50,000 curated feeds to browse, all organized into dozens of categories and subcategories. Eight ways to find feeds The tab bar across the top gives you eight different lenses into the world of RSS: Search — The classic search bar, now with semantic search and autocomplete. Type a topic or URL and get instant suggestions. Below the search results you’ll find trending feeds ranked by a hybrid algorithm that combines subscription velocity, read engagement, and subscriber counts. Web Feed — Create RSS feeds from any website. This one gets its own blog post. Popular Sites — Thousands of curated RSS feeds organized into categories like Technology, Science, News, and Business. Each category has subcategories for drilling down further. YouTube — Over 2,000 verified YouTube channels converted to RSS feeds. Browse by category or search for specific channels. Subscribe and read YouTube in your feed reader the way it should be. Reddit — Nearly 6,000 real subreddits across 47 categories. From r/programming to r/sourdough, you can subscribe to any subreddit as an RSS feed. Newsletters — Newsletters from Substack, Medium, Ghost, Beehiiv, and other platforms. Platform pills let you filter by newsletter provider if you have a preference. Podcasts — Popular podcasts organized by genre. Search for shows or browse the curated collection. Google News — Eight preset topics (World, Business, Technology, Sports, and more) that create feeds from Google News. One click to subscribe. Categories and subcategories Most tabs are organized with a two-level taxonomy. Click a category pill at the top to filter, then drill into subcategories for more specific browsing. YouTube’s Technology category, for example, breaks down into Programming, AI & Machine Learning, Gadgets, and more. The categories are consistent across tabs where it makes sense, so you can explore Technology feeds across YouTube, Reddit, Popular Sites, and Podcasts without having to rethink the navigation each time. Grid view and list view Every tab supports two viewing modes. Grid view shows feed cards with thumbnails, descriptions, subscriber counts, and freshness indicators. List view compresses things into a denser layout when you want to scan quickly. A style popover in the top right lets you toggle between views. Your preference is saved per tab. Try before you subscribe Every feed card has a Try button that instantly fetches the feed and shows you the actual stories. No commitment, no subscribing. Just a quick look at what you’d get. If you like what you see, the subscribe button is right there with a folder picker. A breadcrumb link at the top takes you back to where you were browsing when you’re done previewing. The new Add Site popover If you don’t need the full discovery page, the popover that appears when you click “+” in the sidebar has been redesigned too. It still has the quick URL input for when you have a feed address handy, but now it also shows freshness indicators and has buttons to jump into any of the discovery tabs. Semantic search The search tab uses Elasticsearch to find feeds by name with fuzzy matching. Type “cooking” and you’ll get cooking blogs, YouTube cooking channels, cooking subreddits, and cooking podcasts. It searches across all feed types, not just traditional RSS. If Elasticsearch doesn’t find anything, the search falls back to a database query so you’ll always get results. Where all these feeds came from Building the discovery page meant curating a lot of feeds. I wrote management commands to discover and verify channels, subreddits, podcasts, and newsletters from real sources. The collection includes over 2,000 YouTube channels, 6,600 subreddits, 7,300 newsletters, 32,000 podcasts, and 14,000 RSS feeds. Over 63,000 feeds in total, all real, verified, and categorized. The Add + Discover Sites page is available now on the web for all users. If you have feedback or ideas for new categories, platforms, or features, please share them on the NewsBlur forum. March 4, 2026

byWORLDWIN INTERNATIONAL -

Add + Discover Sites: YouTube, Reddit, podcasts, newsletters, and thousands of feeds to explore…

NewsBlur

Mute feeds for a set amount of time http://localhost:4000/2026/03/16/mute-feeds-for-a-set-amount-of-time/ Sometimes a feed gets noisy for a while. An election cycle, a product launch, a conference week. You don’t want to unsubscribe because you’ll want it back eventually, but you also don’t want 200 unread stories piling up every day. Until now, muting was all or nothing: mute a feed and it stays muted until you remember to unmute it. Usually you forget. Now you can mute a feed for a specific duration. Pick anywhere from 1 day to 1 year using the slider, or mute indefinitely the old-fashioned way. When the time’s up, NewsBlur automatically unmutes the feed the next time you load your feeds. No reminders to set, no manual cleanup. Two ways to mute Right-click any feed and choose “Mute this site.” Instead of muting immediately, a slider appears with two buttons: one to mute for a set duration, and one to mute indefinitely. Drag the slider to pick your duration, from 1 day all the way to 1 year with natural stops at 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months, and so on. The same controls are available in Site Settings. Open any feed’s settings and you’ll see a Mute section with a status message showing whether the feed is active, muted with a countdown, or muted indefinitely. The slider and buttons work the same way, and you can unmute at any time. If a feed is on a timed mute, the right-click menu shows how much time is left next to the “Un-mute this site” option, so you always know when it’s coming back. Auto-unmute When a timed mute expires, NewsBlur unmutes the feed automatically the next time you open NewsBlur or refresh your feeds. There’s nothing to configure and no background job to wait for. Free accounts respect the 64-feed limit, so if you’re at the cap, the feed stays muted until you have room. Timed muting is available now on the web for all NewsBlur users. If you have feedback or ideas, please share them on the NewsBlur forum. March 16, 2026

byWORLDWIN INTERNATIONAL -

Mute feeds for a set amount of time by via The NewsBlur Blog http://localhost:4000/2026/03/16/m…

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