Tired of combing through social media for things to read? A Google search doesn’t always surface the good stuff from independent bloggers. I’ve long wished for search engines specifically designed to index blogs and podcasts.
That’s where tools like Scour.ing and Feedle.world come in. I recently discovered Feedle, and I’m impressed.
What is Feedle?
Feedle lets you search across millions of blog posts and podcast episodes from indexed RSS feeds. Here’s how they describe it:
It allows you to search across our database of millions of blog posts and podcast episodes. For every RSS feed we index, we make the content searchable. On top of that, every search in feedle has its dedicated RSS feed—so you can subscribe to a single feed …
Tired of combing through social media for things to read? A Google search doesn’t always surface the good stuff from independent bloggers. I’ve long wished for search engines specifically designed to index blogs and podcasts.
That’s where tools like Scour.ing and Feedle.world come in. I recently discovered Feedle, and I’m impressed.
What is Feedle?
Feedle lets you search across millions of blog posts and podcast episodes from indexed RSS feeds. Here’s how they describe it:
It allows you to search across our database of millions of blog posts and podcast episodes. For every RSS feed we index, we make the content searchable. On top of that, every search in feedle has its dedicated RSS feed—so you can subscribe to a single feed that brings in content from multiple sources matching your interests, rather than subscribing to hundreds of individual feeds.
This is a smart approach. You get targeted discovery without the subscription fatigue.
Pre-set collections
If you’d rather browse than search, Feedle offers curated collections that regularly update. Their top nav features Top Stories, plus collections like Digital Crossroads, Good News, and The Hacker News Front Page. I’ve already added their Top Stories page to my daily bookmarks—it’s a great starting point.
Testing it out
I decided to put Feedle through its paces with a Star Wars search. The first 48 results revealed what Feedle is currently indexing: mostly larger outlets like Gizmodo, Inverse, BoingBoing, The Verge, Ars Technica, and Smithsonian Magazine. They have to start somewhere, and this is solid foundation.
If a particular source appears too much, you can easily remove that source from your results. I tested removing Gizmodo and Inverse, which immediately surfaced more variety. That’s a really rad feature.
As an example of finding a great article using Feedle, in the results was a piece from Nathan Goldwag’s personal WordPress blog titled “Star Wars and the Difference Between Reverence and Respect.” This is exactly the kind of personal, thoughtful writing I want to discover. It’s the real gem of a search engine like this.
Looking forward
Feedle has real promise. I’ve already requested that spudart.org be added to their database, and I’m hopeful they’ll continue expanding. What excites me most is their potential to flesh out their index with more individual blogs and lesser-known voices. We need more search options, and this one is particularly wonderful for discovering genuine blog content.
If you’re tired of algorithmic feeds and SEO-heavy Google results, give Feedle a shot.