The Bottom Line
You can clip, mail or blog about news in NewsIsFree or get your news pages via email, but catching up with unread news from particular sources can be a bit tricky, and NewsIsFree does not offer virtual folders.
Pros
- NewsIsFree lets your read RSS news feeds comfortably via a web-based interface
- Feeds can be grouped on pages in NewsIsFree, and you can get these pages via email
- You can clip news items for later, mail them and blog directly from NewsIsFree
Cons
- NewsIsFree cannot show you all unread items of a page or feed
- Clipped news items cannot be organized in folders in NewsIsFree
- NewsIsFree does not offer saved searches or virtual folders
Description
- NewsIsFree is a web-based news aggregator for RSS feeds.
- News sources can be organized on separate pages in NewsIsFree.
- NewsIsFree can sort or filter news by date, source and popularity.
- You can clip individual news items for later, send them by email or blog directly from NewsIsFree.
- NewsIsFree lets you search all news sources and you can turn the results into an RSS feed.
- With NewsIsFree Premium Services, you can receive individual news items via email.
- NewsIsFree can send you individual news pages by email, too.
- Integration with del.icio.us lets you bookmark and tag news items fast.
Guide Review - NewsIsFree - RSS News Feed Reader
With a NewsIsFree account, you can lump all the news sources you like and do not like on one page (provided they offer public RSS feeds). You can also group them to different pages per topic, for example, and NewsIsFree's approachable yet powerful interface makes reading a very newspaper-like experience.
Unfortunately, while you can search the news using NewsIsFree, the results are often lacking a bit in relevancy. And while, as a NewsIsFree Premium Services subscribe, you can turn search results into an RSS feed and add that to your news pages, the whole process lacks the ease, elegancy and flexibility of virtual folders that aggregate news based on certain criteria.
One criterion NewsIsFree lets you exploit to some profit and amusement is news popularity. You can see only the 10% most popular news items on your page, for example, or sort all news by popularity. It's a pity that there is no way to mark items or feeds "read" and see only and all unread items in one go. Individual items can be saved to "clippings" for later, though, and it's easy to send them by email or blog about them right from NewsIsFree, too.
All in all, NewsIsFree is great for reading (and blogging about) news as in the latest (popular) world news but less great for following a few individual news outlets and bloggers closely or for tracking all news pertaining to a topic.
