
Show HN: An alternative RSS reader and search engine for news and content - zeras
https://newsandrumors.com/
======
zeras
Developer here .. I am excited to announce the beta launch of NEWS and RUMORS
.. [https://newsandrumors.com/](https://newsandrumors.com/)

I have been solo developing NEWS and RUMORS for the last year with the goal of
improving and simplifying content discovery and providing a way for lesser
known bloggers and content publishers to reach a much larger audience.

There is so much great content on the internet that gets lost or never found
because the search engines, news readers and news aggregators all feature and
focus on the same high traffic sources, many of which write articles based on
content from the same professional newswires and press releases.

I want to give readers a lot more control over the content they consume and
the format of how it is presented.

To do this I developed a high performance search engine using a very clean and
highly customizable low-bandwidth user interface for searching and displaying
content acquired through an extensive modular-designed indexing system.

There will be a lot more that NEWS and RUMORS will offer as I continue its
development, but it is a fully functional and beneficial service right now
that I hope many people will enjoy!

## OVERVIEW

NEWS and RUMORS provides fast and simple access to a large amount of diverse
content from a wide variety of sources while focusing on user privacy.

I created NEWS and RUMORS because I wanted a news and content search engine
that does not show me advertisements as search results, does not track
everything I do, does not only show content from high traffic sites, and lets
me decide what content I want and do not want to see and how I want to see it.

 __The "Popular" search results (default home page) currently contains a
variety of hand-picked sources because there is not enough traffic yet to
generate an accurate list, but that will change once more people start using
the site.

## FEATURES

\- Discover great content from sites other services ignore

\- Search, read and save your favorite sites, topics and searches

\- Fast and low bandwidth web interface

\- Personalize search results

\- Multiple site theme options and search layout options

\- Passwordless login only requires email

\- No user tracking with focus on user privacy

\- Read what you want, when you want, how you want

## SCREENSHOTS

\- Light Theme:
[https://i.imgur.com/q2yn3tp.png](https://i.imgur.com/q2yn3tp.png)

\- Dark Theme:
[https://i.imgur.com/1gkwFtb.png](https://i.imgur.com/1gkwFtb.png)

## QUICK SEARCH DOCS

\- limit search results by domain = @domain.com

\- limit search results by topic = #topic

\- limit search results by feed = .domain-com-blog

\- limit search results by exact word = _word

\- limit search results by string = string

NOTE: You can combine the above search methods to create more complex
searches.

## DIRECT URL EXAMPLES

You can quickly read many sites by simply adding their domains using this URL
format ..

\-
[https://newsandrumors.com/s/github.blog](https://newsandrumors.com/s/github.blog)

\- [https://newsandrumors.com/s/bbc.com](https://newsandrumors.com/s/bbc.com)

\-
[https://newsandrumors.com/s/wired.com](https://newsandrumors.com/s/wired.com)

\- [https://newsandrumors.com/s/npr.org](https://newsandrumors.com/s/npr.org)

\- [https://newsandrumors.com/s/wsj.com](https://newsandrumors.com/s/wsj.com)

You can quickly view results for any topic using this URL format ..

\-
[https://newsandrumors.com/development](https://newsandrumors.com/development)

\- [https://newsandrumors.com/creative](https://newsandrumors.com/creative)

\- [https://newsandrumors.com/react](https://newsandrumors.com/react)

\- [https://newsandrumors.com/python](https://newsandrumors.com/python)

\- [https://newsandrumors.com/marketing](https://newsandrumors.com/marketing)

\- [https://newsandrumors.com/saas](https://newsandrumors.com/saas)

\-
[https://newsandrumors.com/fortnitegame](https://newsandrumors.com/fortnitegame)

Be sure to login to gain greater access to NEWS and RUMORS features!

I am building NEWS and RUMORS for people like us.

You can help me make it better by sharing your comments, suggestions and
criticisms!

~~~
IPTN
I was looking at the payed options and it shows a one-time upgrade key, but it
requires me to enter payment information before providing any info on it such
as the price or defining what the one-time upgrade entails.

~~~
zeras
That is an oversight definitely. The payment flow requires we collect the
payment method before the "checkout" page, but it should definitely show all
prices prior to the payment method step. I will work on changing that.

Thank you for pointing that out!

------
usrlocal1023
Congratulations on the launch. Site looks nice and fast as well.

Just some comments.

1\. At the moment you are forced to login if you want to change site theme or
font size. It would be nice if you could without logging in. I am fine it with
the settings persisting as long as I don't clear the cookies.

2\. Are there any plans to support prefers-color-scheme so you don't have to
manually set the color to dark?

3\. Also, the links to news article aren't direct. Goes via
[https://newsandrumors.com/nar/go/<random-id-
here>](https://newsandrumors.com/nar/go/<random-id-here>). Is it possible to
opt out of this?

~~~
zeras
Thank you!

1) Are you sure you cannot change the font and and site theme without logging
in? I just tested it and it works fine for me in private and incognito modes.

I purposely designed it so a lot of the settings are available via the quick
action bar for non-logged in users.

If you have no-script active or have disabled javascript, then the only option
would be to login to change them via the Settings page.

Otherwise, you should be able to toggle those easily via the quick action bar
above the search results.

2) Definitely. I probably should have already done that.

3) I am still thinking on this. My plan was to soon remove it for upgraded
accounts. There is no user-specific tracking, but by anonymously tracking
clicks in general it helps with ranking and generating "popular" search
results order.

~~~
spacecowboy17
To track clicks without redirects and JavaScript use the 'ping' attribute:
[https://www.w3schools.com/tags/att_a_ping.asp](https://www.w3schools.com/tags/att_a_ping.asp)

~~~
andreofthecape
Didn’t know about that. Does not look like it has Safari or IE support

------
superasn
Wow this site is very well done. The amount of filters on the search page is
insane. Also love the look and fast loading. Clearly a lot of hard work must
have been put to make this. Congrats on the launch and I wish you all the
best.

P.S. Just out of curiosity, what's the business model for this site?

~~~
zeras
Thank you!

The site supports user subscriptions for advance reader and searching
functionality, so my hope at least for now is that people will use the free
version and at some point want higher limits or more functionality and then
upgrade.

I have a lot more planned for it long term (everyone always says that, but it
is true) such as an API service, but for now, I am focused on improving the
reader service and adding more sites to the index.

------
WarOnPrivacy
A search that delivers results containing my search term and nothing else is
pure genius. It's a wonder major search engines never thought of it.

~~~
zeras
It is really surprising and somewhat irritating that it is not more common.

~~~
lukevp
No results found is actively optimized against, which raises recall and
reduces precision of search results Via synonyms, stop words, etc. the
priority of a search engine is to deliver you results because those are
actionable even if not fully relevant.

~~~
zeras
I agree and I like that meta search engines offer fuzzy search matching,
because sometimes you know what you want but are not quite sure of the best
keywords to use to find it.

I just wish more search engines offered an option or default setting where
search results would only include exact matches.

------
cprecioso
Amazing! Just a tip, set the <html lang> attribute or browsers will try to
auto-detect the language ( [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/HTML/Global_att...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/HTML/Global_attributes/lang) ). At the moment, Chrome is saying
it's in portuguese and translating it by default.

~~~
zeras
Thank you for the suggestion! I am familiar with the lang attribute but did
not think to use it. It should be live now.

------
chris_f
Congrats on the launch! Looks very clean.

There is an unexpected behavior if I search "New York NY". The search box just
shows "New York" on the results page. Is that deliberate?

Example:
[https://newsandrumors.com/?q=new+york+ny](https://newsandrumors.com/?q=new+york+ny)

~~~
zeras
Yes, that's because I limit search keywords/terms to 3 or more characters each
right now.

Try #newyork for the state or #newyorknewyork for NYC and of course you can
add any keywords you want to it after that.

------
ms123
Congratulations! It's been a while since I got excited for a news application,
yet what you've built is very intriguing and makes me want to learn even more.
I really like how the app feels fast, loads well, and the search is fast. Will
keep an eye on it!

~~~
zeras
Thank you for the kind words! I have always loved news readers and
aggregators, but many of them seem to follow the same approach. I wanted
something different for myself and it just kept evolving.

------
webwanderings
I don't like the idea of spending time on a site where I'm reading rumors but
this is very nicely done indeed. Looks good on the mobile as well, though
images take up more space than they should.

~~~
zeras
Thank you! I will admit that I really wanted to go with a shorter brandable
name, and I am still considering it, but for now I think the name fits.

I am planning to tweak the mobile/responsive styles on some layouts to make
them a little easier to read.

Some of the search layouts will show differently on mobile screens so maybe
toggle between them to see if you like one of those better.

------
webwanderings
This is good looking. But, is this just a River of News scrolling, or do you
keep track of "read" items to get them out of the way?

~~~
zeras
That is an area that I need to improve. With a high focus on privacy, it makes
it hard to track what users read without creating a user tracking system and
that is something I really want to avoid doing.

The thread links use the CSS :visited selector to show the links in a
different color to help identify the links you have previously clicked without
the site knowing that information itself.

There is a history function for logged in members, but for user privacy it can
be limited or disabled by the user via the Settings page and is also auto-
purged periodically.

At the very least the site needs to show content that has been added since
your last visit and that is something I plan to implement soon.

~~~
searchableguy
Have you looked into cuckoo filters?

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo_filter](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo_filter)

~~~
zeras
The problem is not really the methodology or implementation but the perception
caused by it. If you can tell a user "we know you read this" then that implies
you are tracking what they read which is something I try to avoid.

I plan to work on a solution, but if I do, users will be able to opt-in or
opt-out depending on the implementation.

------
gostsamo
Hi, I have some accessibility related requests regarding the design. Are you
opened to suggestions?

~~~
zeras
Absolutely! I know the main color themes have contrast issues with
accessibility. My plan is to create a high contrast theme to help with that.

That said, any other suggestions would definitely be appreciated.

~~~
gostsamo
I'm blind, so can't comment on the color scheme. However, screen readers
depend on semantic elements like headings, list items, and so on to navigate
the page. Currently the search results are not organized as any such entity,
but are a few links that are related visually. The graphics are not marked as
such, lack alt text, and an example how one of them reads is:

"9c064f09d669c4a7ec0da2bb54c16a…"

Setting aria-hidden might be the easiest way to deal with this particular
issue.

"Popular" and "newest" are not marked as control elements like buttons, combo
box, or a radio button so they look just like plain text to my screen reader.
It is experience that suggests that hitting enter on them will produce any
result.

The search button is not labeled and it reads just as "button". What you call
a quick bar (a guess) is a line of buttons represented as links but with no
text inside them and no apparent function.

PS: Great idea for the site btw. I'm bitching so much only because it seems as
something that I might use and wish to have as comfortable as possible.

~~~
zeras
I really do appreciate the suggestions.

I have worked really hard to provide as many options as possible for people,
but it is hard to anticipate everything people will want or need from it until
they use it and tell you so feedback like yours helps.

I have added everything you wrote to my notes from this thread so I will see
what I can do to improve them for you.

~~~
gostsamo
appreciated :)

------
pc9
I like the design. I'm curious about the technologies you used, do you have
details anywhere?

~~~
zeras
I have not posted those details yet as the network security voice in my head
screams, "DON'T DO IT!"

That said, I will probably post something on the site soon as I always find it
interesting to see how other sites are built.

------
iJohnDoe
Kudos! Very well done. Kept me engaged in the site and found some great things
to read.

Nice job!

~~~
zeras
Great to hear! Thank you!

------
jermaustin1
This is actually a really nice site, and I think I'm going to be replacing my
Google News tab with it.

Really great work!

~~~
zeras
Awesome! Thank you!

------
tdhz77
Remove foxnews, and I would use this.

~~~
zeras
Upgraded accounts gain access to a global filter that can filter unwanted
sources from search results.

Non-upgraded accounts can include one exclusion source in searches as well by
adding ..

    
    
      -@domain.com

~~~
tdhz77
No thanks

------
onyva
Is the solution to “content diversity” problem (right wingers current fake
issue) flooding readers with more trash and low quality content? Isn’t this
what Facebook’s for?

~~~
zeras
My intention behind content diversity is not based on political interests, but
rather a desire to offer a greater level of exposure for lesser known content
and blog sites.

By "diversity" I mean that a developer who writes good articles on python
whose blog only gets a few users a day will be treated the same as content
from high traffic sites.

Unlike other news services that either have political leanings or are beholden
to their advertisers, I want to provide an independent service where people
can decide for themselves what they read or do not read.

~~~
onyva
The sun, daily mail, Fox News are “lesser known”? Not to mention tons of other
stuff I’m too afraid to even checkout. Low quality and fake news is not
diversity.

~~~
zeras
No, of course not, but if I only included lesser known content in the reader
and search engine then few people would use it since they would have to look
elsewhere to find content from the major news sources.

Major news sources will always get more overall exposure simply through
quantity because they publish so many articles every single day. However, low
traffic sites and blogs will get their content promoted at or near the top of
the search results when it is indexed in the same manner that the high traffic
sites do.

I understand there are sites you dislike which is why I added an Upgrade
global filter feature where you can block sites, topics, keywords, etc. that
you do not want to see. Other Upgraded users can do the same when they do not
want to see content they dislike as well.

~~~
onyva
Promoting low traffic sites that actually publish content that’s worth while
finding out about is admirable. But if your front page is an “open sewage” of
the worst of USA and UK tabloids, I don’t think anyone who’s interested in
quality content would bother to register or upgrade.

~~~
zeras
I posted it in the beta notes on the site, but forgot to add it to my comments
here.

The Popular search results are currently supplemented by a variety of hand-
picked source feeds because the site is new and there is not yet enough
traffic history to generate an accurate list of popular content, but that will
change once more people start using the site.

Of course people will not be happy with some of the sites selected if the
target site has a political bias that they disagree with, but it is only
temporary until traffic starts to grow more on the site.

I already have it built into the engine to ignore the supplemental sources
once the activity level hits a certain level.

That said, it will still come down to the users. If a lot of users are viewing
specific content, it will likely find its way to the home page.

On a side note, you can change your default home page via the Settings page to
avoid the popular search results.

