This Reader is indispensable

In October 2001, Firefox brought tabbed browsing to the masses. In my opinion, that was the most significant feature added to a browser since the Netscape shipped with support for tables and images. And, in my opinion, we haven’t seen a single feature since tabbed browsing that does as much to improve the user’s experience of using a browser.

That changed when Apple shipped Safari 5 with a new built-in feature called ‘Reader’. Safari’s Reader feature has done as much to improve my experience of the web as tabbed browsing did 9 years ago. It’s like a giant vacuum cleaner for all the detritus of ugly, intrusive online advertising that is littering today’s web.

Here’s what a typical web page today looks like:

Here’s what the same page looks like with Safari’s Reader turned on:

The difference is like night and day–Reader gives you a perfectly readable, consistently formatted article, no matter what site you happen to be visiting. Here’s the marketing spiel from Apple’s site:

Safari Reader removes annoying ads and other visual distractions from online articles. So you get the whole story and nothing but the story. It works like this: As you browse the web, Safari detects if you’re on a web page with an article. Click the Reader icon in the Smart Address Field, and the article appears instantly in one continuous, clutter-free view. You see every page of the article — whether two or twenty. Onscreen controls let you email, print, and zoom. Change the size of the text, and Safari remembers it the next time you view an article in Safari Reader.

And it does exactly what it says on the tin. I’m told that Firefox users can similarly improve their online reading experience by installing a similar add-on called Readability.