I have been doing a little exploring this morning on Readability, which is a platform to save web articles and blog posts for later reading (without all of the ads, images, and other clutter). Formerly, it was a paid service so I hadn’t used it very much. But, they just went to a very interesting model and launched an iPhone and iPad app. Essentially, what they have done is made a universal platform for creating a reading list that crosses all platforms (web browsers and mobile). This is interesting to me for two reasons:
- It is a huge benefit to have great content that I have queued up for myself whenever I am waiting in line or have a minute to consume something new. It is also wonderful to be able to push any article to a service that lets me consume content without clutter. As a personal workflow, having a high-quality ready experience every time I need one is really valuable.
- Anyone can leverage this idea by either using the platform and becoming a Readability “publisher” (using their application to create a great reading experience for content) or simply by allowing our users to use Readability to save our curated content for later viewing.
I think there is a lot of potential in removing the cluttered reading/consumption experience and digging into the essence of the value of great content.
I encourage you to check out the mobile app: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/readability/id460156587?mt=8
The browser extension: http://www.readability.com/addons
Other apps that use their platform: http://www.readability.com/apps
Their Publisher information: http://www.readability.com/publishers
