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The Reader feature in Safari 5 can change your whole web experience

by Mel Martin Jun 8th 2010 at 8:00PM

I'm surprised Apple didn't hype the Reader feature in Safari 5 a bit more. It's almost a stealth function, and you might not even notice it is there. My colleague Dave Caolo touched on it in his Safari 5 overview, and I want to make sure everyone tries it. (If you're a fan of the Readability bookmarklet, you're probably going to like it -- in fact, it's built on the same code base.)

Here's how it works. Click on an article or post on your favorite
website. Take a look at the Smart Address Field. If the word 'Reader' appears, you're good to go. Click on the word 'Reader' and you'll get a clean view of the page. If it is a multi-page article, they will all be there as you scroll down. Even better, you can print the page cleanly, or send it via e-mail. When you are done, navigate to the bottom of the displayed page and click the 'x' and you'll be back to the regular web. Check the screen shots for before and after renderings to see how it works.

I found reading this way to be a terrific experience. Reader simplifies the web, getting rid of a lot of the annoying sidebars and extraneous content. It won't work on a front page with lots of links to articles, but once you are in the article, it should re-render your page if you ask it to.

Apple support boards are seeing a bit of traffic about Safari 5 compatibility, but the reader functions seems to be very solid. Give it a try and see if it doesn't change your web experience. Reader works on both the Windows and Mac version of Safari. I'd love to get it on the iPad and the iPhone -- but you can get a taste of it now on those devices by using the Instapaper Mobilizer to create Reader-esque pages from your favorite sites.

Note that not everyone is pleased with Reader, as it can impact advertising revenues for some sites (although it does load the complete page before it lets you go to Reader view, so it should not hinder pageview counts). It's a lot like the tension between television networks and the time-shifting/ad-skipping technologies that began with the VCR and continue today with DVRs. Ad-blocking and Reader views will probably be a flashpoint between content creators/advertising networks and the audiences they serve.


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I'm surprised Apple didn't hype the Reader feature in Safari 5 a bit more. It's almost a stealth function, and you might not even notice it...
 

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rob.fellows

Can anyone tell me why this is happening? I'm trying to email from reader using Mail.app. When I click the email button, a compose window opens in Mail that looks like the reader window, including pictures - but when the mail comes through the pictures are missing; there is only a placeholder frame. The copy of the message in my "Sent Mail" folder does not include the picture either. Is this a mail issue? Any ideas?

June 09 2010 at 10:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Don O'Shea

I would like to second the numerous comments on the usefulness of Readability and its customization. I found the text in the Safari version too large and used too much space. Firefox + Readability works best.

June 09 2010 at 4:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
carl.olson

Reader is OK. However, I find Readibility ( found at http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/ ) much more useful and easier to use. It's customizable much more so than Safari's Reader. On a web page or even in an RSS stream? Just click Readibility (assuming it's book-marked) and it instant readable text with in-line content preserved.

June 09 2010 at 12:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bill Tilstone

The TUAW post encouraged me to go try it. It is a great addition to Safari (and who cares if there are other similar things around; if you know about them and want to use / have been using them, good for you, that is of no consequence to the issue of the availability of a useful tool to Safari users in the new version). I also gave Bing a run for the first time last night and give it 5 stars too. What a pleasure to be able to escape the Google fine-mesh net.

June 09 2010 at 12:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Christi

@godpye: I've been surfing through blogs and websites and it seems a post or article of around 400 words or more triggers it. Just look for a button at the address bar (to the right) if it is. You can also use command-shift-r.

June 09 2010 at 11:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
godpye

I may be stupid but I can't find this famous button on Safari 5. Would someone tell me where it is please?

June 09 2010 at 10:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Luddy

http://readable-app.appspot.com/

Is basically the same thing for any browser. It's nothing more than some javascript to format a page. Although it does refine it nicely in Safari, it's nothing extraordinary.

June 09 2010 at 6:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2shae

It's great!

Now all we need is a SPEED-READING extension and it would be perfect!

June 09 2010 at 6:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
manu

This is a good information i got from here.I really liked it and this information is worth remembering.

June 09 2010 at 6:04 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
R94N

What a neat feature. I love it.

June 09 2010 at 2:57 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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