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by Jack Bates (writer), February 13, 2010

Credit: Jack Bates
A Readability view of this article, beautifully simple.

Readability is a simple tool that makes reading on the Web more enjoyable by removing the clutter around what you're reading.

The sub-head says it all, except why this tool is important. All the noise on a website can get in the way of the communication between the author and the reader. We even see it minimally here on BrooWaha. The advertisements, the links, the layout, all that just equals noise when a reader tries to read a web page. Readability cuts that all out and formats the text the way the reader chooses when they set it up. This allows the reader to concentrate on the message, to focus.

On sites like cnn.com and espn.com readability really shines. The amount of noise on sites like those is defining almost to the point of blinding. Readability will allow for more efficient access to the content of sites like those. It works equally well on blogs with their crazy amount of widgets and whatsits and whodats. All that noise gets slayed by the simplicity of Readability.

Don't take my work for it. Go configure Readability right now, come back to this site, use it on this article and watch how much faster you can read the same words with an increase rate of understanding. There are only two steps.

1) select your settings
2) drag shortcut to your browser

That is it. That is the magic of readability. It just works! When on a noisy site all you have to do is click that shortcut and it is a visual mute button for all that craziness! Please comment with your experience with Readability.

Read more articles on: reading , ereader , readability , website formatting

Jack Bates is a writer for BrooWaha. For more information, visit the writer's website.