Facebook Could Roll Out Its Very Own RSS Reader

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With Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Reader finally coming to an end, and a few alternate solutions already coming up, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) seems to be wading into the game too with plans to launch its own RSS reader, TechCrunch’s Ingrid Lunden reported.

Facebook Could Roll Out Its Very Own RSS Reader

Tom Waddington Comments on Facebook’s RSS Feed

According to Tom Waddington, a web developer for the site Cut Out + Keep, mentions of RSS feeds in Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s code were found a few weeks ago, indicating that new entries may include RSS feeds for users as well as subscriber lists.

“It’s exactly what you’d code to start up a Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Reader clone,” Waddington told TechCrunch

When Waddington tried to run the code through Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s Graph API Explorer, the results came out restricted only to whitelisted addresses.

When asked about the possibility of launching an RSS product, a Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) spokesperson refused to comment on the matter.

When linked with a user’s Facebook ID, the RSS code schema also covered title, URL and update time.

While Facebook may onthe look out to offer its users a promising RSS product as a replacement for the Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) reader, it doesn’t seem clear if the feeds would be Facebook’s own content or content taken from elsewhere. It is also not clear if the social media giant would ever be positioned as the best replacement for Google Reader.

Although RSS never went mainstream, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) had its way around it in 2011 with its ‘Subscribe via RSS’ to Pages, which later took the form of the new ‘Follow’ feature in 2012.

Waddington however told TechCrunch that, “The simplest way to know it’s unrelated to those Notification RSS points is that it’s also in the AP.I”

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