Give Any Mobile Browser Safari Reader-Like Powers With A Bookmarklet

Give Any Mobile Browser Safari Reader-Like Powers With A Bookmarklet

One of the best features of Safari for iOS is Reader. With a tap of a button you can strip a web site down to its bare essentials and read without the clutter of menus or ads. Wired points out you can get the same feature in a browser like Chrome using a bookmarklet from Readability or Instapaper.

Basically, all you need to do is install the bookmarklet for Readability or Instapaper in the mobile browser of your choice. This should work in any browser on Android, iOS, or Windows Phone, but here’s how to do it in Chrome:

  1. Head to Readability’s Bookmarklet page here.
  2. Tap and hold the “Read Now” link and select “Copy Link Address” (or if that’s not available, select all the Javascript text and copy it to your clipboard).
  3. Create a new bookmark (hit the sandwich menu and then the star icon).
  4. Name the bookmark whatever you want, but something like “&Reader” will make it easy to search for.
  5. Paste the Javascript you copied in step 2 into the URL line and save your bookmarklet.

Now, when you want to strip a page of all those ads and menus, just tap the URL bar, type the name of your bookmark (in this case, “&Reader”) and hit enter. This will trigger the bookmarklet and load the site you’re currently on into Readability for easy reading.

If you don’t actually have the time to read, you can create bookmarklets that send pages to the bookmarking service of your choice pretty easily.

A Handy Chrome Hack That Simplifies Obnoxious Mobile Sites [Wired]


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