Safari 5's new reader view

While Steve Jobs was talking up the latest iPhone at WWDC, Apple quietly released a new version of the Safari web browser for Windows and the Mac. This wasn't a point release indicating a few minor bug fixes, but a whole new version. Version 5 has some fantastic new features like the new Reader view. It's a brilliant idea that works like a dream for some, but it is also very worrying and it may provoke criticism from others. It might even get taken out.

First the good news - it lets you browse the web without adverts. Now the bad news - many websites depend on adverts to generate the revenue to enable them to exist. If people can view web pages without the ads then ad revenue with fall and websites could go bust, or perhaps turn to a different model, such as subscription only.

From a user's perspective, it is a great feature. Safari detects when you are on a web page that has an article. It's not clear how it does this, but it must have some fuzzy algorithms to detect the main page content and distinguish it from the rest of the page components. When it detects an article, a Reader button appears in the address box at the top of the browser and clicking it opens a pane that displays just the article. The rest is hidden or dimmed.

It's the best idea to be added to web browsers for ages and it's brilliant being able to focus on the main content of a web page without all the rubbish that gets in the way like buttons, adverts, animations and so on. On this page, for example, you get a clear and simple display of the text without all the other components on it. You can resize the text, email it, print it and so on. It's amazing.

The downside is that it hides the adverts and if you're not seeing the adverts or clicking on them, then no revenue is generated by the page. Websites cost money to create and maintain and big websites cost big money. What's the point if it doesn't make any money and is just costing you?

As a webmaster, what is the point of me designing web pages and sticking to accepted standards so that they are displayed in a particular way if Safari will simply take my content and display it in a completely different way? It's redesigning my web pages and redisplaying the contents in a way that I do not want or desire. Not only do web designers now have to think about how web pages will display in different web browsers like Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox, but also the way that Safari displays it in Reader view. It unnecessarily complicates matters for web designers and it's a feature that will not be liked. I want web pages to be displayed how I want and I don't want Safari to rewrite it and display it in some other completely different way. This is bad news for websites, webmasters and web designers.

Just think of all those iPhone and iPad and iPod Touches that don't display Flash content, some of which is advertising, and now Reader view in Safari on desktop and laptop computers will hide the rest of the adverts. This could seriously affect some websites.

Safari has a small market share, mainly because most computers on the internet are running Windows and Safari isn't that popular on Windows. It's the default for Mac users though and so Mac websites will feel the impact of Safari 5 first. Will they find that ad revenue declines as Mac users upgrade to Safari 5? How will this affect them? Will web pages be redesigned to try to get around the new Reader feature of Safari? Is it even possible? Will companies complain to Apple and put pressure on it to disable the Reader view? Maybe there's a hidden feature, like a special tag, that enables website developers to disable Reader view? It's possible, and probably desirable too. At least by website owners.

It's too early to say what will happen, but this is a feature that's worth watching and seeing how people react to it.