Top 6 News Aggregators For Web Browsers, Android and iOS

Google News/Google Reader

Google News and Google Reader are by far the most popular news aggregators on the internet today. Google News delivers content from over 4,500 websites including online magazines, blogs, citizen journalism sites, news organizations and newspapers. The process which Google News uses to aggregate the content is 100% automatic and is excellent in bringing users the latest trends from various sources, whilst updating by the minute.

Finding the news you want with Google News can be difficult since there is no official help file, though you can use the advanced search option within Google News. However, a faster way to find the news you want is to use text commands within the search field.

Google News commands:

Show all news related to Samsung published on Socialbarrel.com
Samsung source:Social_Barrel

Show news to do with a product. In this example, Mobile or Smartphone and a particular brand such as Samsung or HTC.
“Smartphone” Samsung or HTC

Show news about Smartphones from Samsung but not from Apple
“Smartphone” OR “Mobile” OR “Cell” Samsung –Apple

Show stories about blogger Matt Kimberley from publications based in United States
Matt Kimberley location:United States
Or we can do the same and search by state, for example IL or NY

Show all news where president Obama is mentioned in title
allintitle: ” president obama”

Show all news published on Social Barrel or any of your favourite news sites
site:socialbarrel.com

Show all news stories on Galaxy S3 published in the last one month
http://news.google.com/news?q=Galaxy+S3&as_drrb=q&as_qdr=m

Show all the stories about Twitter published on news sites from Australia
Tweet OR twitter location:Australia

Show every story published on Facebook from Social Barrel
“Facebook” allinurl:Socialbarrel.com

Show news about Windows 8 but filter out all PR (press release)
Windows 8 -press-release

Check whether a site is indexed by Google News
Site:cnn.com

Note: If you type in a site and there are no results, it’s not indexed by Google News.

Show news with Samsung and HTC in the title, but in any order
allintitle:samsung allintitle:htc

Google Reader

Google Reader is similar, though maybe not as “pretty” as Google News it is however a very robust feeder. With Google Reader, you can add unlimited feeds, and read your news by topic or feed.

Both Google News and Google Reader are completely free.

Google Reader for Android

Google Reader alternative for iOS

Fark

The news aggregator known as Fark is a well-trusted source of news and also very popular. It’s famous for its vast amount of humorous news all in one place, which you will struggle to find anywhere else on the web. The content is not sorted by your typical computer based algorithm, instead it is controlled by real human editors – ensuring the best stories get pushed to the top and older less interesting stories drop. If it’s entertaining news stories you seek, then check out Fark.

Fark for Android

Fark for iOS

Pulse News App

The Pulse news aggregator is popular amongst tablet users. According to the Pulse developers the site, it “takes your favourite sites and transforms them into a colourful and interactive mosaic”. Basically, you can search content from your chosen sites or from Pulse news sources. A really handy feature of Pulse is the ability to save news to read later or read offline. Pulse allows syncing between your devices; for example, iPad to iPhone. Pulse also integrates with Google Reader, allowing you to send your Google Reader feeds to Pulse.

Pulse is free and is available on the iPad, iPhone and Android devices.

Feedly

Feedly supplies readers with news feeds from some of the best sites across the internet, as well as giving users the option to add their own favourite sites. The interface is very clean and minimal, letting you focus on the page you are reading. Feedly has built-in social interaction so you can easily share your favourite stories on Facebook ,Google+ and Twitter. Feedly is free and is available as an app for both Android andiOS and can also be used with selected browsers, which include Firefox, Chrome and Safari.

Pocket (previously known as Read it later)

Pocket is hands down the best app of its kind. Sure there are plenty of similar apps that let you save it for later, but this one takes the cake. I really don’t know why they went ahead and renamed it, apart from the fact that now they have a catchy slogan: “When you find something you want to view later, put it in your pocket.” It’s certainly a cool and catchy slogan, but it gives new users absolutely no idea what the app does, where previously it was obvious with the name “Read it Later”.

Pocket is free and there is no longer a pro version as there was with Read it Later, instead the pro features of Read it Later have been added to Pocket. Pocket is available for iOS (iPad/iPhone), Android, Kindle and web browsers.

This app is great for those who find themselves with too much to read and not enough time. If you already have a Read it later account, don’t worry, you can use pocket straight away without losing any of your old material or add-ons.

Pocket for iPad and iPhone

Pocket for Android

News360 For Tablets

News360 is free and available for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices but is tailored and optimized for the iPad. The app is less than perfect, though recently the developers have released a brand new version that promises to fix the freezing and crashing problems that many users experienced.

News360 stands out from others by learning your reading behaviour, so it can better serve the news you want based on your topics of interest. The News360 app delivers content from 20,000+ sources.

Download News360 for Android or iOS

Which news aggregator do you use?