I don’t think we should. Browsers are probably the single most competitive piece of software out there. Microsoft, Google, Apple, Mozilla – there is no reason to fret or even care about what Safari does.
Webkit is different but this doesn’t seem to be about Webkit.
At least here, there's the alternative of using existing ad-blockers for Safari, which are typically SIMBL plugins or otherwise sidestep the official plugin channels.
Safari Reader is like Readibility but then without Readability:
"Safari Reader makes it easy to read single and multipage articles on the web by presenting them in a new, scrollable view without any additional content or clutter. When Safari 5 detects an article, users can click on the Reader icon in the Smart Address Field to display the entire article for clear, uninterrupted reading with options to enlarge, print or send via email."
Reader is a really nice feature. I like the way it's implemented. Bonus points for the fact you can add the nicely formatted readable version to Evernote as a PDF.
I very much like the idea but don't like at all how it is implemented. I would like to have it as a simple HTML page. I.e. where I can resize the browser window to whatever width and I never get horizontal scrollbars. And that there is no extra right/left border.
Maybe let's call this thing 'strip-everything-away-except-the-text'.
And I want it in Chrome, not in Safari. :)
Hm, now where I am thinking of it, it actually should be possible to just implement such a Chrome extension.
I tried it with some AnandTech/TomsHardware pages, and it worked on their 10+ page articles as well. Makes reading those type of sites a lot less irritating.
I'd love to see this feature in Chrome/Firefox/etc, so sites would stop splitting content into bite size chunks to up pageviews.
Interesting move here. Apple is essentially providing a baked-in capability to "skip" ads within Safari on the desktop while simultaneously preparing to launch their own Mobile ad service.
The Reader button (where the RSS button would normally be) seems to only be displayed when Safari recognizes a article (until now it recognized everything I threw at it – blog articles, magazines, newspapers). It then overlays the article pretty nicely over the page: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4073000/reader.png
One really cool thing about Reader is that it recognizes multi-page articles. I tried a New York Times and a Ars Technica article. It doesn’t immediately load everything but rather as you are scrolling.
Bad news, by the way, for all who hoped that Reader would get rid of (all) ads, it still displayed one of those small ads placed in the body of the article: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4073000/ads.png
From the Safari page:- "Safari Reader removes annoying ads and other visual distractions from online articles."
AFAIK, in other browsers, extensions are required to block ads. Safari is the first major browser to have adblocking as a prominent built-in feature. I wonder if other browsers will follow and what impact will that have on Google's bottom line if adblocking becomes mainstream.
If the ads aren't being read then clickthrough and conversion rates will go down, and then advertisers will pay less. The likely impact on revenue for sites with advertising will be pretty much the same, I expect; just a bit slower to take effect.
I think Chrome does this as well (I don't use it). Could this be related to their choice to require extensions to be signed? I'd think that anytime code is being automatically downloaded and installed, security would be a concern.
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 99.9 ms ] threadFor enhanced security and stability, Safari Extensions are sandboxed, signed with a digital certificate from Apple and run solely in the browser.
I wonder if ad blocking will be allowed.
Edit: After reading the Safari 5 site, it's not clear that Apple will be exercising any control over extensions.
Webkit is different but this doesn’t seem to be about Webkit.
Technically, sandboxing is inspired from chrome. And even packaging sounds lot similar to chrome.
http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/dev/packaging.html
Now how apple distributes those 'digital certificates' is important.
"Safari Reader makes it easy to read single and multipage articles on the web by presenting them in a new, scrollable view without any additional content or clutter. When Safari 5 detects an article, users can click on the Reader icon in the Smart Address Field to display the entire article for clear, uninterrupted reading with options to enlarge, print or send via email."
Maybe let's call this thing 'strip-everything-away-except-the-text'.
And I want it in Chrome, not in Safari. :)
Hm, now where I am thinking of it, it actually should be possible to just implement such a Chrome extension.
I'd love to see this feature in Chrome/Firefox/etc, so sites would stop splitting content into bite size chunks to up pageviews.
file:///Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Resources/Acknowledgments.html
The Safari page is not yet updated (– edit: now is) but Safari 5 shows up when you check for updates. I’m downloading it now.
– edit: And finished. A quick rundown:
There are no (big) UI changes, Top Sites was visually updated and you can quickly switch to your history: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4073000/topsites.png
The Reader button (where the RSS button would normally be) seems to only be displayed when Safari recognizes a article (until now it recognized everything I threw at it – blog articles, magazines, newspapers). It then overlays the article pretty nicely over the page: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4073000/reader.png
One really cool thing about Reader is that it recognizes multi-page articles. I tried a New York Times and a Ars Technica article. It doesn’t immediately load everything but rather as you are scrolling.
Bad news, by the way, for all who hoped that Reader would get rid of (all) ads, it still displayed one of those small ads placed in the body of the article: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4073000/ads.png
The adress bar now sort of works like the one Firefox has (I typed in “aja”): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4073000/adress.png
You can now make everything open in a new tab, that was previously only a hidden preference (sorry, German): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4073000/tabs.png
The developer tools seem to be much improved. And they look a bit Chromy (fixed width font and all ;).
Ahhhhh! I must have been completely blind! The old “fills-up-the-adress-bar” progress bar is back! I thought something was odd :)
Edit: Seems fixed now. Also in Safari 5.
http://www.apple.com/safari
screenshot: http://grab.by/4O3f
AFAIK, in other browsers, extensions are required to block ads. Safari is the first major browser to have adblocking as a prominent built-in feature. I wonder if other browsers will follow and what impact will that have on Google's bottom line if adblocking becomes mainstream.
I wonder what impact will it have for site owners... that "distracting" content is what pays the bills of many people.
Adding window management features to the undo sounds plain stupid.
http://developer.apple.com/safari/library/documentation/Tool...
I think Chrome does this as well (I don't use it). Could this be related to their choice to require extensions to be signed? I'd think that anytime code is being automatically downloaded and installed, security would be a concern.