A live news board like the old Google Trends screensaver

What the Trends screensaver was

In May 2013 Google Trends added a full-screen view of Hot Searches. It filled the browser with tiles in Google’s four colors, each showing a search term that was rising right then, and swapping it for the next. You could choose how many tiles to show.

In February 2014 they got one: a Mac screensaver of the same view, a five-by-five grid by default. It was the rare screensaver that told you something.

Where it went

The old full-screen address now redirects to Google Trends TV. It is still free and still live, and it still shows trending searches on a colored background. The grid is gone: Trends TV shows one search at a time, full screen, and lets you pick the country.

Searches are not headlines

A trending search is a word or two, such as a team, a name or a show, with no story attached. That was the charm of the original: you saw what people were curious about and had to guess why. It is less useful if what you want on the wall is the news itself, with enough of each story to know what happened and who reported it.

The FeedsBar board

We built the FeedsBar board with the Trends screensaver as the model, for headlines instead of searches. It fills the screen with large cards, each one a live headline with its source, and turns one card at a time, so the wall changes quietly instead of all at once. You can add a ticker along the top or bottom. It runs full screen in any current browser at app.feeds.bar, and it keeps the screen awake while it is showing.

On a Mac, the FeedsBar app has the same board built in, and can open it on every display when the Mac has been idle for a while, like a screensaver, then close it the moment you touch anything. The board page has the details, and the spare monitor guide shows how to set up a screen just for it.

Side by side

If what you loved was watching the world’s curiosity scroll past, Trends TV is still there and costs nothing. If you want the news on the wall, try the board.