Readability - Transform the way you read on the web !

I love reading - I read books, articles, magazines, circulars, just about anything I can lay my eyes on… Naturally, I am a voracious reader in the Internet as well - I have subscribed to a huge number of RSS feeds, and  have a constant stream of Twitter tweets on articles to read.

The problem, I face when reading on the internet is, eye fatigue - I have astigmatism and the varying fonts faces, sizes and colors is a strain - even to normal people with perfect sight ! Couple this with the increasing number of advertising on the top and on the side of articles and you have a situation where the actual content is increasingly obscured. Font sizes are getting smaller and smaller and content is getting squeezed more and more by advertising and marketing clutter.

Of late, I have been using a tool that I found on the web (I saw it on Twitter but I have unfortunately been unable to track who sent it to me :-( ) that has literally transformed my reading experience. It was created by a company called Arc90 and is a Bookmarklet which can dragged onto your browser bookmarks. When you click on it - it  reloads the current page loaded in your browser stripped all extraneous fluff.  Simply the content of the page is shown.

As a web-developer and general internet addict ;-), I have seen a lot of tools and gadgets and I like to think I have a good idea of what works - as soon as I saw this tool I knew this would be awesome. The concept is simple, powerful - elegant.  It is one of those things that seem so obvious  - when you feel that way - you know you are seeing a work of genius.

What you need to do to get this gadget is  -

1. Go to the Readability installation page
2. Choose from the simple options given there how you want your content to be displayed - the options are simple and straightforward giving you a choice of reading style, font size and margin width (I chose eBook style, large size and narrow margin). A sample text is shown with the formatting you choose so you can play with the options.
3. Once you are satisfied, simply drag the big button marked “Readability” onto your bookmark toolbar (or you can right click the link and choose the bookmark option) and your done !
4. Next time you are on a web-page with a compelling article being obscured by garish ads and decorations, simply click on the Bookmarklet and the page reloads with the content formatted exactly as you want it.

When I first installed it they had fewer options and every once in awhile it would not work - but they have been going from strength to strength with new options and it’s rare to see it not work.

This tool has certainly transformed how I read on the web - I can’t recommend this tool enough!!  So what are you waiting for - go get it !! :-)

PS: It won the NY Times Pogy award for best idea of 2009

web 2.0, software, tool, bookmarklet, font