Readability is a company with the goal of making the Web a more reading-friendly place. Readability removes a lot of the distractions from a website and allows you to format documents the way you like for a consistent and improved reading experience. You can utilize Readability as a web app or a mobile app to remove the distractions or to save something to be read later.
Readability isn’t just for web consumers though. Web authors can ensure that their sites are being rendered in Readability correctly and get a slice of the pie from their consumers with a revenue-generating subscription model that works a little bit like Flattr.
As a web consumer, there are a few different ways to make the most of Readability. The most common way will probably be through an add-on in your browser or a bookmarklet. You can convert pages to the distraction-free Readability format at a click of a button. You can also use buttons embedded on websites to convert the articles. 404 Tech Support has the Readability Now | Later button between the article and the comments for your convenience. As a subscriber to Readability, you can save documents to be read later through a bookmark on your mobile browser or through growing integration with other mobile apps. There are then other apps that allow you to access your saved reads on the go in case you prefer to do your reading on the bus ride home from work, from your desktop computer, or anywhere you prefer.
You can customize the layout to your liking and make it the most enjoyable read for you by changing the font color, width, size and optionally hiding images or changing links to footnotes.
By being a paid subscriber, you can also be supporting the creators of the content you read just by marking their works to be read later through Readability.
70% of all Readability membership fees go directly to writers and publishers. Every time a subscriber uses Readability on your site, a portion of that subscriber’s fees are allocated to you. Whether in a web browser, iPhone, or just about any mobile or tablet device, Readability puts reading — and your content — at the center of the experience.
If you are a Publisher, you can sign up with Readability at no cost to ensure your website renders properly in Readability and claim any already accrued earnings. However, Readability has one of the most odd payout schedules I’ve encountered:
Between January 15 and January 30, and between July 15 and July 31 of every calendar year, Readability shall provide the option to all Registered Publishers to redeem payments that equal the Total Registered Publisher Allocation so long as the Total Registered Publisher Allocation exceeds $50.00. All Total Registered Publisher Allocations that do not exceed $50.00 will continue to be held for the next pay period.
Check out Readability and see if it can improve your web experience.