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Apple builds ad-killing Reader into Safari 5

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 8 Jun 2010 at 08:13

Apple has quietly unveiled version five of its Safari browser, which includes an unique Reader feature.

The new browser didn't even warrant a mention in Steve Jobs' keynote address at Apple's worldwide developers conference (WWDC) last night.

However, Safari 5 delivers an innovative new feature called Reader. This automatically detects when the reader is browsing an article page and, at the press of the button, strips away all the adverts and other on-page clutter, and leaves the reader with only the text and images to scroll through.

The Reader facility also detects when an article runs over several pages, and runs the entire article into the same page, saving the user from having to click through.

While users may welcome the lack of distractions, Safari 5's Reader is unlikely to be welcomed by publishers, with adverts pushed into the background and page impressions likely to be reduced by the lack of clicking through pages.

Safari extensions

Firefox-like extensions are another new feature being introduced with Safari 5. Mirroring Mozilla's plans for the next version of Firefox, Apple is encouraging developers to write the extensions using standard web technologies, such as HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript.

As with Google Chrome, the third-party extensions will be sandboxed from the main browser, in an effort to maintain security and stability. They will also require a digital certificate from Apple and will only run from within the browser.

Apple claims the new browser offers a 30% performance increase over Safari 4 and increased support for HTML 5 features, such as embedded videos and geolocation.

Safari 5 is available for download now for both Windows and Mac.

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User comments

Slow

That reader feature is really nice, but good god, the new version of safari is soo slow, especially compared with chrome...

By Lomskij on 8 Jun 2010

It's funny that it is basically an upgraded (and a bit smarter) version of what Google's been offering for a while now under exactly the same name :>

By Josefov on 8 Jun 2010

Re: Slow

Is it slower than Chrome or just slow in general? Apple actually claims improved performance as a key new feature ("Improved Performance: Safari 5 executes JavaScript up to 25% faster than Safari 4.")

By luca_leonardi on 8 Jun 2010

Still doesn't make me want to convert from Chrome to Safari.

By Connor on 8 Jun 2010

Re: Slow

It might be just a personal perception, but to me it *feels* slower than the version 4. And it definitely slower than Chrome - for instance to load this very page takes 8 seconds in Chrome and 16 seconds in Safari 5. Also the actual Chrome browser opens almost instantly while Safari takes it's time. Maybe it's because of those Safari eyecandies - fading pages, etc. Also what is really annoying that it keeps adding random pages to the "Top Pages" hotlist.

I love the "reader" feature though, it made reading articles in some sites (where they're split into small portions and littered with embedded links) much more pleasant. I think this feature alone makes me keep the Safari 5 after all :-)

By Lomskij on 8 Jun 2010