Google Chrome’s follow button is only available for android mobiles

Image Courtesy: XDA Developers

Google Reader is no longer available, but its spirit lives on in the form of a “follow button” for Chrome, which Google originally experimented with in May. According to Adrienne Porter Felt, Chrome’s director of engineering, the RSS tracking function was previously confined to the experimental Canary versions of Chrome for Android, but the firm has now begun allowing it on stable versions of the browser.

You may subscribe to a site’s RSS feed and have it updated in your Chrome app by following it through the browser’s three-dot menu. Sites you follow will show on a “following” tab, which sits alongside Google’s “for you” page of recommended articles. 

It’s unclear how many people have access to the new functionality by default, but Felt explains that you can activate it yourself by typing chrome:/flags into your address bar and turning it on under web feed.

The Chrome follow button is presently only available on mobile devices (iOS and PC versions are on the way), which will undoubtedly upset some Google Reader hardcore users. Still, it’s good to see Google keeping the RSS flame alive in some way. It makes the Chrome app even more feature-rich, but if you’re looking for a free, no-fuss method to keep up with some of your favourite sites, it appears like Google is once again prepared to provide that choice.