Gilbert L 梁敬暉

Here are three tools I use to make my online reading more efficient and enjoyable:

I often discover or receive online content at times when I can't read them. Read It Later lets me quickly stack up the articles and read them at a more convenient time. More importantly Read It Later apps download the content to your smartphones and tablets so you can read them anywhere. Yesterday, for example, I read through more than twenty blog posts while waiting for a doctor's appointment.

Read It Later is not the only bookmarking service out there; Instapaper and others offer similar services.

2. Readability

Poorly formatted websites are difficult to read. Readability fixes this by offering you the tools to customize column width, font size, and background color.

3. Topicmarks

Topicmarks is a new service that summarizes the piece you're about to read. This comes in handy with certain ranty bloggers and journalists who decide to publish 10000 words articles even though all they needed was five bullet points. The service is currently in beta and is unlikely to stay free going forward. Nevetheless, I think it'll be a valuable tool for a time conscious reader.

These tools combat a problem I am beginning to confront daily: information overload. I'm currently working on a simple solution to cut down the amount of time I spend going through unimportant blog articles. If it works, I'll demonstrate it in a future post.