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Google may be resurrecting Google Reader inside Chrome with 'Follow' button

Google is testing an experimental Follow feature powered by RSS.

Alison DeNisco Rayome Managing Editor
Managing Editor Alison DeNisco Rayome joined CNET in 2019, and is a member of the Home team. She is a co-lead of the CNET Tips and We Do the Math series, and manages the Home Tips series, testing out new hacks for cooking, cleaning and tinkering with all of the gadgets and appliances in your house. Alison was previously an editor at TechRepublic.
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Alison DeNisco Rayome
Google's Chrome browser

Chrome is testing a Follow feature similar to Google Reader.

 James Martin/CNET

Google is testing a new experimental Chrome feature that would allow people to get the latest content from the websites they follow using RSS feeds, according to a Wednesday Chromium blog post. By tapping an RSS-powered "Follow" button in Chrome, you could keep up with any site you choose, large or small. When the site publishes content, you'd see updates in a new Following section when you open a new tab, like this:

wc-chrome-blogpost-final
Google

This may sound similar to Google Reader, an RSS service Google shuttered back in 2013 that let you subscribe to and read feeds from different publishers. While tracking news through RSS never gained major mainstream popularity, it's possible that putting it in Follow button form in Chrome could help it pick up steam. 

Google said it would provide more information to web publishers as it tests the feature and determines whether to roll it out more broadly in Chrome. 

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