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Google News RSS Feeds Limitations in Feedzy ​

Why does Feedzy fail to extract images from Google News RSS feeds? ​

Google News RSS feeds do not link directly to the original publisher articles. Instead, each feed item contains an encoded redirect URL that routes through Google's servers, often landing on a consent or interstitial page rather than the actual article.

When Feedzy tries to fetch an image, it follows this sequence:

  1. Look for a <media:content> or <enclosure> tag in the feed — Google News feeds typically do not include these.
  2. Scan the item content for inline images — the content in a Google News feed is minimal and rarely contains images.
  3. Fall back to the configured fallback image (if one is set).

Because the redirect URL leads to a consent page and not the article itself, Feedzy cannot reach the original content to extract an image, even if the publisher's own site includes one.

Can Feedzy Pro's Full Text Import bypass Google's consent page? ​

No. The Full Text Import feature fetches the full article content by visiting the URL provided in the feed item. Since Google News feed items link to Google's redirect/consent pages rather than the original publisher URLs, Full Text Import encounters the same block and cannot retrieve the article content or images.

This is a limitation imposed by Google's aggregator behavior, not a bug in Feedzy. No plugin setting or subscription tier can bypass Google's consent page redirect.

What workarounds exist for getting images from Google News sources? ​

Option 1: Use a feed proxy service ​

Feed proxy services such as RSS.app can decode Google News redirect URLs and expose the original publisher URLs. You can:

  1. Create a new feed in RSS.app (or a similar service) using your Google News feed URL.
  2. Copy the proxy feed URL provided by the service.
  3. Use the proxy feed URL in Feedzy instead of the original Google News feed URL.

The proxy feed will contain direct links to the original articles, allowing Feedzy to extract images normally.

Option 2: Subscribe directly to the original publisher's RSS feed ​

If you are following a specific publication through Google News, check whether that publication offers its own RSS feed. Using the publisher's direct feed URL in Feedzy bypasses Google's redirect entirely and gives you full access to images and content.

For example, instead of a Google News search feed for a particular site, look for a feed URL like https://examplenews.com/feed/ or https://examplenews.com/rss.

You can validate any feed URL at validator.w3.org/feed before adding it to Feedzy to confirm it is a valid XML feed with image tags.