bookmarklet makes internet easier to read!

04 Apr 2009

Most articles I come across are lost in a sea of advertisements and bad formatting.  While advertising surely has its place, I feel that it is unfair to distract the user when they have committed 5 minutes out of their day to read what you have to say.  Perhaps I am a glutton for simplicity, but I prefer being able to finish an article in one go, rather than having my eyes darting all over a page.

Luckily for people easily distracted like myself, some javascript genius has figured out how to automatically pull the article content out of a page and display it in a customizable, easy to read overlay, toggled by a bookmarklet.

A bookmarklet is a bookmark that instead of loading a new page, runs a small application on the current page.  Readable, the bookmarklet in the spotlight, is easy to install.  Either drag it to your bookmarks bar, or right-click and save as a bookmark.  The author’s website further explains.

The way it transforms a page is entirely based on your preferences.

I prefer reading light text on a dark background, so I chose the ‘dark grey’ color.  The layout size, or width, that I prefer is 50mm.  The rest I left the defaults.

Now when I’m reading any article, the first thing I’ll do is hit my Readable bookmarklet.  What this accomplishes for me is increased readability, efficiency, and usability of the internet.

Further Reading:

Readable - The Bookmarklet
Readability - Wikipedia
Bookmarklet - Wikipedia