Super simple RSS reader on the web or for Mac

Question

I was using Rososo but it's been having troubles for the last month or so. I would love to find something does exactly what it does: let me know when there have been updates to a page since I last viewed it. That's it. It doesn't keep a list of unread posts or or anything. It just presents me with a list of RSS feeds that have changed since I last clicked on their link. That's what I'd love, but I'd settle for something slightly more complicated.

Mostly, I want something that will not expect me to read updates in their own provided viewer but makes it easy for to view the update in its native habitat (actually on the website of origin). I've gotten fed up with waiting for Rososo to get fixed but I don't want to go back to something so complex and distracting as Google Reader.

Update

It looks like Rososo is waking up.

Answer 1

You can also try NewsFire.

Answer 2

Since you are fine with a web based reader -- Google Reader should be given a try.
One of its good features is it does not track more than 1000 posts,
If you cross 1000 it assumes you are not interested;
does not show you something like 1233045 unread posts!

The Google Reader official blog.

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From the Rososo about page, I can see what you desire.
Here is a simple way to get close to that with google reader.
I don't know if there is a way to 'hide' feeds with no updates... but,

1. If you look at feeds with updates and keep marking them (entire feed) as read,
   they will not show up in bold or with unread counts until there are updates
2. You can always right-click and open in a new tab the first link from a feed
   (read or unread) to reach the site
3. You can also use keyboard shortcuts to quickly browse over feeds
4. And, maintain groups to collect feed categories
   which can be 'folded' up when you are not interested.
   These folded groups will go bold if there are updates in any contained feeds.
   The 1000 post limit will work at all levels and you can mark an entire group as read
5. Through all this the overview page keeps showing you most recent stuff
   with pointers to your 'feed tree'

Answer 3

I use NetNewsWire.

Among other things it allows you to customize the display of the RSS feeds and also very nicely sync's with Google Reader, allowing you to keep your feeds in sync across multiple devices.

It's also free.

Answer 4

Use Google Reader, but use the iPhone version (here's the link). The interface is clean and simple, not a lot of complications. You can access it from anywhere, even from a desktop browser.

It really is an excellent way to read RSS feeds; I've been using it for about 2 months with Google Chrome and I like it a lot!

Answer 5

Alternative possibility, you could use Friendfeed for this, even if this is not the initial use of it. You can add your RSS feeds as "imaginary friends", and associate eventually icons to them to recognize fastly.

You can also get updates from it by mail or by a desktop notifier.

However, this will simply give you a list of the updates, new entry by new entry (though you can organize them in different lists). So it might not suit you, since you would like something rather notifying you one update per feed until you read it.

Answer 6

You could give Snackr a try. It runs on AIR so works on OS X.

Here is the description for their site: It's an RSS ticker that pulls random items from your feeds and scrolls them across your desktop. When you see a title that looks interesting, you can click on it to pop up the item in a window.

It is pretty easy to use and easy to just jump in to read some random RSS feeds. Looks kind of like a stock ticker.

Answer 7

I suggest NetNewsWire with this stylesheet which displays each post directly in NetNewsWire's preview pane just as they would appear if you opened them in a separate browser.

Of course it also syncs with google reader (a terrible interface in my opinion) but that does let you sync with the excellent NetNewsWire iPhone app.