- What is an RSS feed URL and where do I find one?
- An RSS feed is a machine-readable version of a website's content, formatted as XML. Most blogs, news sites, YouTube channels, and podcasts publish one. Look for a link labelled "RSS", "Feed", or the orange feed icon on the site. For podcasts, you can copy the feed URL directly from a podcast directory like Podcast Index (podcastindex.org) or the show's own website. Common patterns: WordPress blogs often have
/feed/ appended to the homepage URL.
- Why does it say "fetch failed" for some feeds?
- Browsers cannot directly fetch URLs from other domains (the same-origin policy). Feed Owl uses three free CORS proxy services as a fallback chain. If all three fail, it usually means the feed host is blocking external scrapers, the URL is incorrect, or the feed requires authentication. Try checking the URL in a new browser tab first — if the XML loads there, a proxy timeout may be causing the failure; try refreshing after a few seconds.
- Is this really private? What data is sent where?
- Your subscribed feed URLs are stored only in your browser's localStorage — they never leave your device. When you load or refresh a feed, the URL is passed through one of three public CORS proxy services (allorigins.win, corsproxy.io, or rss2json.com) so the XML can be fetched. Those proxy servers see the feed URL you're requesting, the same as any web request. The actual article text is parsed and displayed in your browser; it is not sent anywhere else. No login, no cookies, no analytics are used by Feed Owl itself.
- Can I listen to podcast episodes directly here?
- Yes. Podcast feeds include audio file links in
<enclosure> tags. Feed Owl detects these automatically and shows an inline HTML5 audio player for each episode. You can play, pause, and scrub without leaving the page. The audio is streamed directly from the podcast's own hosting server — Feed Owl is just the player.
- How do I add multiple feeds at once?
- Paste multiple feed URLs into the text box, one URL per line, then click "Load & Subscribe". Feed Owl will fetch and merge all of them into a single chronologically sorted feed, clearly labelled by source. You can add more feeds later — they are appended to your subscription list.
- What happens if I close and reopen the browser?
- Your subscriptions are preserved in localStorage and will still be listed when you return. Click "Refresh All" (or reload the page) to re-fetch the latest articles. Articles themselves are not cached between sessions — only the list of feed URLs is stored — so a network connection is needed to load new content.