I read a lot of authors, and try to keep on top of what they have written. To do this, I used to have to search them in my library every month or so. Once I had 20 authors, it got really tedious. I was searching everywhere for a simple to use RSS to keep me up to date, but none of the free ones were able to create a feed out of my library's website. I didn't want to pay since the whole point of a library is to read books for free. This one creates the feeds easily, and actually works. I have been notified three different times that a new book has been ordered. Now, I can relax with my books and know that when the series continue, I will know and be able to get my next installment. Cons: It does not take me to the page when I "read" it. Once the feed is registered as read, you cannot see it again. (Doesn't bother me because it isn't something I have to refer back to, but be warned.) A little annoying opening a new tab when I ask to create an RSS feed, but that might not be this app.

Update, October 2024: It still works! It hasn't been updated in over 3 years, however, and it's not on the dev's website. That's unsettling, because RSS Bot works exactly how I'd want a menu bar RSS notifier to work and I wouldn't want to lose it (Rosetta 2 will be deprecated at some point). There's no app as straightforward and simple. Hear that, developers? Build an app that works exactly like RSS Bot, and I'll be first in line.Update, April 2019: Several previously-cleared stories showed up in Apple's feed, and these all opened properly in a web browser. New stories continue to work as well. Wherever the previous issue was between Apple's feed and RSS Bot, it appears to have been fixed, so I'm increasing my rating from 3 to 5 stars.I love the concept of RSS Bot, to handle my most important handful of news feeds. But lately, the links fail on the most important one: Apple's own 'newsroom' RSS. The stories show up, but when clicked on, nothing opens. This happens when clicking on the menu bar app or the macOS notification (both High Sierra and Mojave, latest version, no change). Worse, the notification then disappears, so you've now lost the story. Some other feeds work as you'd expect, so it's probably some minor technicality. I'm a little surprised Fiplab doesn't test with Apple's own feed, though. Or maybe I'm not. When the app started up just now, it asked if I wanted to leave feedback. I did want to. It sent me to a 404 error page on Fiplab's website. When I search their support page for 'RSS' I get nothing. I hope they aren't planning to abandon this useful little app. I so want it to work. If it doesn't get some love by the time NetNewsWire is revived by its original developer (who just got it back), however, RSS Bot will be history here.

UPDATE: FINALLY FIGURED OUT WHY RSS BOT STOPPED WORKING. SOMEHOW MALWAREBYTES BREAKS IT AND STOPS THE NEWS FROM COMNIG IN. HOPEFULLY IT ISN’T BECAUSE THERE IS SOMETHING SHADY GOING ON.UPDATE: Looks like the end of life for RSS Bot. I can’t find any support topics to cover why it no longer works with High Sierra. Even when it still worked, the high CPU usage made it unusable because my fan would constantly whir so loud.I guess it’s back to RSS Menu, so far the only RSS solution for me that consistantly works.UPDATE: While I insist on keeping this a 4-star review I have to report that RSS Bot has become completely unusable because of some sort of sluggishness and “beachballing” along with high processing use. Unfortunately I have had to basically abandon it until this is fixed.The ability to bring the information to you that you want and/or need is the biggest time-saver for me.I have noticed that for some odd reason RSS Bot consumes 100-percent of my processing power and shows up in the battery menu under “apps using significant energy.” Not sure why this is, but obviously this is the place for immediate improvement.A suggestion would be the ability to individually set retrieval times for individual feeds. For example, breaking news would be better at 5-minute intervals while a tech-related article might be hourly. This might immediately factor into an energy-saving improvement.Lastly, and I kind of wonder why Apple hasn’t thought of this, but in their Notification Center, why not include a “ticker bar” option—where important notifications scroll across the bottom fo the screen? My other often running RSS app that does this is ZipLine, which used to be in the App Store but isn’t anymore.Anyway, keep up the improvements!

Overall, this app is great. But it has a couple of flaws.1 - Every now and again, I find an RSS feed that it isn't compatible with.2 - Clicking the episodes in most RSS feed apps opens a link to content, but some stories I try to access from my RSS Bot list just get removed from the list without opening the content