I'd be much more interested in a solution that effectively minimizes the text or uses another technique about speed reading (like diagonals, etc).
The reason why I won't be using this service is simply because it makes the eye lazier. My eyes are already lazy enough because I am in front of the computer 12+ hours a day, so my eyes muscles need movement. Staring at one point for long time can also cause side effects like losing the sense of space and time. Staring at one point is often used as hypnotizing during different kind of therapies.
This is a terrific idea. I was blown away the first time I saw it. I have been able to consistently get high comprehension at 650WPM for general subject matter (ie non-technical articles), and plan on working my way up to 1000. Love it!
One note: when I drag the bookmarklet from the Install page to my toolbar, then try to use it on a page on my http://localhost/ (a dev site, for ex.), it (a) does what I expected it to do, but then (b) forwards me to http://localhost/install.html when it is finished. When I browse an actual domain-based site, it gives me the nice "You just read..." message at the end. It would be nice if both local and remote sites had the same experience.
Welcome to my smelly code! It's supposed to go to /install on squirt.io--and also localhost for my own dev purposes. It's a bit of a hack, but saves me from maintaining two bookmarklets. Are you a publisher? Trying to embed it on your blog/site?
Yes, this (Chrome not allowing the script to be run) is a good thing. The bookmarklet javascript needs to be served over HTTPS and any communication it makes also need to be over SSL. Seriously if you aren't defaulting to HTTPS for your website and or service in 2014 you're doing it wrong. Plain text HTTP needs to go the way of telnet.
I would have thought that if you read my entire post that I meant that Chrome blocking it is a good thing. I will edit the comment to make that more clear.
Uhm, what's the difference between Spritz an Squirt.io? I've looked at both demos and I can't see much difference in the concept. Though the Spritz website is more ... ehm ... bullshit bingo compliant it seems.
Am I assuming right that the joke lies in Spritz being a VC funded startup and squirt.io just a weekend hack?
The difference is that I can actually use Squirt.io, today. I like Spritz, but it's useless to me if I can't use it on anything but their site or the email app of the next Samsung phone.
Yes. Squirt.io is engaging in the best kind of cultural warfare: Creating something valuable and sharing it with the world, undermining the profiteers who want to lock (other people's ideas) behind a paywall, who (attempt to) justify their claim with slick marketing brochures
According to this, my current reading speed is about 750 words a minute - but I have a tendency to be able to skim or "bulk comprehend" sections of non-technical text so that might explain it.
In fact, it tracks whenever you use it and sends the URL along with all GET parameters of the page that you are browsing, including the referrer(!), your user agent and your IP to Keen.io: https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/bm/squirt.js...
I like the idea however it could do with filtering out HTML and Javascript.
Most pages I've tried it on so far without manually selecting text it goes through a bunch of javascript before getting to the content. That may be my bad the way I'm using it but as the site mentions readability I figured it'd chuck it through that first
I've never thought much about my reading speed before, but after trying this and finding the deafault setting a bit slow, I decided to compare my natural reading speed.
I was able to read the article I chose in about 85% of the time of the default 400WPM of the bookmarklet (I read the article first with a timer, and then reread with the bookmarklet), which would put me at 470WPM. With Squirt, I was only able to get up to 650WPM before it felt too uncomfortable.
I wonder if people really read one word at a time, especially when they're short words. If people do read more than one word at a time, I think a more intelligent approach might be necessary to really make the experience both comfortable and fast.
> I wonder if people really read one word at a time
They don't. I always thought the whole point of speed reading was to ingest multiple words simultaneously.
These speed reading tools should be extended so that they can show multiple words at once rather than one word at a time. A really ambitious improvement would be to automatically recognize very common phrases and constructions and to make an effort to always show those as single groups.
For me it depends on the content and my mood. With my app [0] I read at about 5-600wpm, whether it's 1, 2 or 3 words at a time. If I'm having trouble with a particular article, changing the number of words often fixes it. Though of course, for some content, I need to drop the WPM (esp when there's a lot of technical and/or unfamiliar terms).
Totally right!!
I trained myself to read two lines at once, but a tool that takes the burden of putting the pieces of the sentences together in the mind would be very very welcome! It could display two words ontop of each other that would otherwise be next to each other.
UX shows that this is the most digestable way to consume information.
Going vertical should be preferred over going horizontal.
Please please somebody, would you give nilkn's idea an ear?
Word by word is feels unnatural, phrase by phrase may be better - I don't know.
However, I have dyslexia and I often struggle to follow the line, sometimes I drop out and I have to read a sentence or two again to get in flow state.
I found this method to really improve my reading speed but I am still not sure if want it as my default reading method.
When I was playing around with something like this before (Can't remember what, it was linked on HN recently), I found the optimium was 2 words at a time.
Great idea! I would love to experiment with different presentation modes. There's a discussion in here somewhere about using n-grams to choose the right phrase boundaries, which sounds like a much harder problem than I'm equipped to solve in a weekend :)
This project may consider a name-change, as googling for this after it's gone from the HN homepage will trigger ... interesting results. Especially if you're trying to show this to a co-worker in the office.
I believe that is part of the whole knock against spritz. In German, where some of the founding members of Spritz are from, spritz means a similar thing that squirt does in American culture.
Thank you for this! I intend to drop the script on my blog, it might actually improve real reading rates (rather than thousands coming in from a reddit link and jumping ship after <9s ).
I like this a lot, my only request would be a slightly longer pause at the end of sentences. Right now it pauses on long words so I mentally chunk all that together.
I installed this on my browser bar and hasn't worked for cnn.com, highlighting specific text on cnn.com, medium.com. It worked on techcrunch...what about the HTML of the previous sites renders Squirt unusable?
I checked the console and it has to do with HTTPS. When I try to use Squirt on a HTTPS site I get this error in the console: "[blocked] The page at 'https://medium.com/p/cad4a8df73cf' was loaded over HTTPS, but ran insecure content from 'http://www.squirt.io/bm/squirt.js': this content should also be loaded over HTTPS."
Similar to what I did with the chrome extension Spree [1]. Though I find your pauses on periods to be a bit much. Code for Spree available on github [2]. The IIFE in spree.js can also function as a bookmarklet.
Also, Spree doesn't walk to an element's parent, which usually keeps it from getting into JS and ads, while still reading all of, say, a news article.
Really like it. The only downside is that you have no idea how far along in the article you are. Would be nice if there was a % complete shown somewhere.
It should be possible to change the color of the selected letter to indicate where you are on the page. Alternate option could be to position the word on the (current) vertical line to indicate where you are on the whole page. I'd like to believe that if the text is reasonable amount- the transition for either would be gradual.
Hoping the open source fairy sprinkles some dust on this one.
OP here. I'm using readability's old code (arc90) to extract text, and you can use squirt on any page you like--just embed a link with the same JS as the bookmarklet. If you want a real API, add a github issue (http://www.github.com/cameron/squirt) to remind me--it's on my project bucket list :)
I'm not sure what "Spritz technology" is. RSVP has been around for a long time—it may be that they genuinely added to it with the centering and the red letter and the nice pauses, or it may be that they're trying to patent the equivalent of a one-click purchase.
I am not sure that I get the point of this. When I read a long piece, I try to enjoy it. Imagine the same approach being used to "fix" food or sex in the name of efficiency.
I think the use case for this is the reading we do because we need to consume the information as quickly as possible rather than the reading we're doing for pleasure. Not that the two are mutually exclusive by any means.
I love reading but, particularly online, I'll often need to read something which contains a lot of information I need but isn't written in a style I particularly enjoy reading. For these, I can see the benefit of tools like this.
Love it, I can't wait for an ePub reader though, got so many books I'd love to fly through, though novels for pleasure I think I'd read normally as I enjoy stopping and rereading passages.
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[ 5.9 ms ] story [ 179 ms ] threadThe reason why I won't be using this service is simply because it makes the eye lazier. My eyes are already lazy enough because I am in front of the computer 12+ hours a day, so my eyes muscles need movement. Staring at one point for long time can also cause side effects like losing the sense of space and time. Staring at one point is often used as hypnotizing during different kind of therapies.
One note: when I drag the bookmarklet from the Install page to my toolbar, then try to use it on a page on my http://localhost/ (a dev site, for ex.), it (a) does what I expected it to do, but then (b) forwards me to http://localhost/install.html when it is finished. When I browse an actual domain-based site, it gives me the nice "You just read..." message at the end. It would be nice if both local and remote sites had the same experience.
From Chrome Dev Tools:
"..was loaded over HTTPS, but ran insecure content from 'http://www.squirt.io/bm/squirt.js': this content should also be loaded over HTTPS."
Am I assuming right that the joke lies in Spritz being a VC funded startup and squirt.io just a weekend hack?
Squirt.io was in stealth mode for 6 years!! </snide>
But I won't really be able to dig in until after this weekend. Feel free to contribute, PR, list requests, etc.
Most pages I've tried it on so far without manually selecting text it goes through a bunch of javascript before getting to the content. That may be my bad the way I'm using it but as the site mentions readability I figured it'd chuck it through that first
This is a nice demo, but not a finished product.
I was able to read the article I chose in about 85% of the time of the default 400WPM of the bookmarklet (I read the article first with a timer, and then reread with the bookmarklet), which would put me at 470WPM. With Squirt, I was only able to get up to 650WPM before it felt too uncomfortable.
I wonder if people really read one word at a time, especially when they're short words. If people do read more than one word at a time, I think a more intelligent approach might be necessary to really make the experience both comfortable and fast.
They don't. I always thought the whole point of speed reading was to ingest multiple words simultaneously.
These speed reading tools should be extended so that they can show multiple words at once rather than one word at a time. A really ambitious improvement would be to automatically recognize very common phrases and constructions and to make an effort to always show those as single groups.
http://spreeder.com/ allows you to put in multiple words.
However, if the code for this is available for anyone to edit/modify, perhaps anyone wanting that feature could add it.
[0]https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hughesoft....
Readability tests:
Tool: https://readability-score.com/ Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Readability_test#Readability_te...UX shows that this is the most digestable way to consume information. Going vertical should be preferred over going horizontal.
Please please somebody, would you give nilkn's idea an ear?
However, I have dyslexia and I often struggle to follow the line, sometimes I drop out and I have to read a sentence or two again to get in flow state.
I found this method to really improve my reading speed but I am still not sure if want it as my default reading method.
Note to my boss: I'm sorry!
https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/bm/squirt.js...
priceless!
I think this probably has more to do with Reddit than you or your blog.
Also, Spree doesn't walk to an element's parent, which usually keeps it from getting into JS and ads, while still reading all of, say, a news article.
On another tack, quite a lovely site.
1. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/spree/aehoaolhojlm...
2. https://github.com/wpears/spree
Any reason you cap WPM at 666, and always default to 400wpm? I want to go fasterrrr :)
edit: I made my branch do this, are you interested in contributions?
Hoping the open source fairy sprinkles some dust on this one.
i'm also using Foxit pdf-to-text feature to upload my pdf ebooks on pastebin and use this to read them.
If you even open this up on github i'll be glad to contribute some features :D
I love reading but, particularly online, I'll often need to read something which contains a lot of information I need but isn't written in a style I particularly enjoy reading. For these, I can see the benefit of tools like this.