Browser thoughts for a good overall news page

I use Edge with an ad blocker and it works well, especially with the recent windows 10 updates. Other than the occasional site that complains a little about the blocker with a small on screen banner. All in all it works very well.
Currently, I use the Yahoo homepage that allows you to choose the news/sports/weather agencies' articles/stats/commentary and are updated dynamically. It's acceptable, but I'm still looking though for something less biased.

I use news.google.com. You can customize it or leave it as is.

When a site does that to me, I mentally flip them the bird, and never go back.

They don't pay for my bandwith, so they can kiss my butt. I don't need them, they need me.

Blocking Unwanted Connections with a Hosts File

What it does ...

You can use a modified HOSTS file to block ads, banners, 3rd party Cookies, 3rd party page counters, web bugs, and even most hijackers and possibly unwanted programs.

This is accomplished by blocking the connection(s) that supplies these little gems. The Hosts file is loaded into memory (cache) at startup, so there is no need to turn on, adjust or change any settings with the exception of the DNS Client service (see below). Windows automatically looks for the existence of a HOSTS file and if found, checks the HOSTS file first for entries to the web page you just requested.

To find more information:

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

I tried using that file several times. While for the majority of sites, it worked on my Mac. Hosts files are interchangeable between Windows, Macs, and Unix type OSes.

However, I found several sites that were rendered inoperable by the Host file. Macworld comes to mind. I couldn't use any of the navigation buttons on the site. Something the Host file blocked was integral to the site.

I don't remember the other sites, been a while. But just beware that it can cause problems that you wouldn't normally think a Hosts file could cause.

I've had little luck with PC news feeds for the reasons mentioned here. Out of frustration, I've gone back to the good old newspaper. Our local paper also has an ad free online version as part of the subscription. I'll occasionally browse that when online. It isn't free but to me, it's worth it to avoid the aggravation.

I usually have my smartphone charging on my desk anyway when I'm using the PC so I have the phone set for CNN push notifications for breaking news events. You get headline banners only with no ads and the option to read the full article on CNN.com via the smartphone or PC. Can't avoid the ads there though without a subscription.

I'm a Firefox devote since the beginning, I find my favourite news RSS feed and save it as a bookmark..hover over it for a quick glance or click on it for indepdth bad news..

A lot of sites clamped down on AdBlock plus. I switched to uBlock Origin and ditched AdBlock.

I had never heard about Adblock Plus until just now. Wow! I just installed it and all those ads just disappeared. (So far,) it's miraculous. There's just empty spaces where there used to be ads. I use Chrome as my browser and with limited testing everything's super.

Phil

You will run into a lot of news sites that block AdBlock. Forbes, comes to mind. You cannot enter Forbes website with an AdBlocker.

All you need to do is add the URL of sites that have issues with AdBlock to it's exclusion list...easy as pie.

That defeats the purpose of having an ad blocker. All they are doing is trying to FORCE you to accept advertising. Their content isn't that important, or exclusive.

That depends on whether or not someone finds a site useful, every news site has the same news and headlines..as far as FORCING you to accept their advertising, again..ALL sites rely on advertising to pay the bills.. reading a newspaper is no different, it's chocked full of ads as well... having exclusions in an adblocker is by far defeating the purpose of it's intended use.
As far as I'm concerned , NO news anymore is overly "important" and FAR from exclusive in any way shape or form..

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.

I have looked at Edge again and see promise in it, but it's not for me now and maybe never. The big problem with Edge is the limited number of extensions available. MS seems to taking the Apple Method and requiring extensions to get a MS blessing before becoming available.

I've also looked at the Google News site and can see where that could be an option for me to replace msn.com.

Things seem to have straightened out for now and Chrome, Adblock Plus and msn.com as they're playing well together again, at least for now. I doubt that my Feedback sent to the msn.com site had anything to do with all working again.

Regarding ads on web sites, I agree that it's how sites support themselves financially. But some sites are so overwhelmed with ads and others seem not to monitor their advertisers resulting in video/audio ads that auto-play by just passing a mouse over the ad area, and sometimes results in an auto-play by just going to the site. As long as there are bad apples among web sites, there will be folks using ad blockers, and for sites which fail to work when ad blockers are present, I quickly learn to avoid these sites. The web sites like msn.com also have ways to offer ads in a way that's more acceptable as they have links that are "Sponsored" which is just another way to get a viewer to want to go to a page with ads and stuff.

Brave is a new browser built by the old Netscape crowd. It has built-in ad blockers and is compact and works very well with most sites. It's free, so nothing to lose. I like it

https://brave.com/