During the early days of the Internet, content was simple, succinct, and to the point. The idea was to be as most productive as possible. It was the goal of the military to be concise, effective and efficient. After all, when you have an atomic bomb above your head, there’s not much you can to but to act—and fast.
As the Internet evolved into the World Wide Web, more and more content was added. Banners, bright colors, dynamics and other goodies were added up in order to promote products, services, or global market share. Most of today’s Web sites are full of distractions which hinder our efficiency. It’s getting pretty annoying and wasteful. Disorder and clutter have taken over, making us less and less productive.
Thanks to a tip for one of our readers, I found out there was a way out of this digital mayhem. Through a simple and no-nonsense software, you could eliminate all the clutter and read Web sites with only text included. You could also make the reading adjust to your own personal reading needs. The options available by the reading software are:
- Reading Style: Newspaper, Novel, e-book, Inverse and Athela.
- Font Size: Extra Small, Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large.
- Document Margin: Extra Narrow, Narrow, Medium, Wide, Extra Wide
The name of the productivity-driven software is Readability version 1.2. Readability is a simple tool that makes reading on the Web more enjoyable by removing the clutter around what you are reading. If you’re using Mozilla Firefox, you can add Readability as an add-on and activate it by clicking a small icon embedded on the Status Bar. Easy as pie.
I’ve been using Readability for over a month now, and wonder how how many hours I’ve wasted while surfing the web in the past. Now, it’s part of my Firefox browser. The Web is now like an e-book with large easy-to-read-fonts and no distracting images. Exactly what I needed, but had no idea existed.
If you would like to get your feet wet with this puppy, kindly click this link. You will be amazed on the dramatic change of your previous cluttered Web sites. Good Day.
Add-On: Readability for Mozilla Firefox, Version 1.2
Hi Omar,
I will certainly check this out, banners, popups and such are so intrusive not to mention time-wasting while they load.
One solution that I have been using for years is these guys:
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
I have used it on XP,Service Pack 3 and every version before that. The concept is simple, add a list of the most annoying/hazardous adware/malware sites to your computer and have Windows shortcircuit their access. The site regularly updates the list to keep it current.
If it turns out the solution isn’t for you, the switch back is painless, nothing to uninstall.
jim and nena
fort worth, tx
Hi Jim and Nena:
I took a look at the unwanted parasites list, but feel that Readability offers more advantages for better and more efficient reading.
Thanks for the tip anyway.
Best Regards,
Omar.-
Omar:
Que bien que le este ayudando a “surfear” la Internet esta aplicacion. Para lo que mas la uso yo es para imprimir paginas de internet cuando no quiero imprimir todos los “ads” de colores que hay en ellos.
Jaime^
Hola Jaime:
En realidad yo imprimo muy poco. Leo con frecuencia y el programa que Usted me recomendó facilita muchísimo la lectura, ya que elimina todos los distractores.
Gracias por el consejo. Lo utilizo todos los días desde que Usted lo mencionó.
Saludos,
Omar.-