While a news aggregate needs to use as many different sources as possible, it's also vital that it allows the user to customize what they will and won't see. Now, Microsoft is giving you the power to tweak your Windows 10 news feed in an upcoming update.
Windows 10's New News Personalization Options
Windows Latest first caught wind of this update. Right now, Microsoft is hard at work fleshing out a new section called "News and Interests." It works similar to other news aggregates by collecting headlines from your favorite topics and publishers, but it'll also show you the local weather.
Microsoft is also working away to make the News and Interests pane as visually attractive as possible. For instance, a recent icon revamp update also allowed the primary color of each news article's headline image to "bleed" into the UI.
Now, Microsoft will let you tweak what news topics you'll see, as well as which publishers get to grace your feeds. To do this, you click a button on the news feed that opens a new window within Microsoft Edge.
In this new window, Windows 10 will show you a few topics you might be interested in. You can tick any that catches your eye to see more of it, and you can dismiss any topics you'd rather skip over with a single right-click. If you know what topics you'd like to see, you can manually search for one to follow.
Not only that, but you can also tell Windows 10 which publishers you prefer. The ones you pick have a better chance of appearing on your feed. If there are any stinkers in the batch, you can condemn them to the blocked publisher list, and they'll never appear again.
The news feed will keep itself updated while it's closed, so you'll always have up-to-date news when you open it back up. Windows Latest found it took up about 150MB of RAM while idle; however, you can opt-out of the feature, and it'll stop draining your RAM resources.
If you're interested in giving this new feature a shot, it's not out on the main branch just yet. It's due to come out later in 2021. However, if you're part of the Insider program, you can download the update and give this feature a shot rightaway.
Have I Got News for You, Specifically
A helpful news aggregate always gives the user the reins, or else it runs the risk of filling their feed with trash that they don't want to read. Fortunately, Microsoft's upcoming news feed seems to be taking this to heart and will let you select which topics and publishers can grace your eyes.
If you'd rather not wait, you can create your own news feed using RSS. The technology is a little long in the tooth, but it still does a fantastic job of helping you create your very own news feed.
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