How I Read the Internet

I read a lot online. The internet has been good to me. But it needs filters. I follow 241 people on Twitter, and that number is growing. Those folks post a lot of links I want to read, but often don’t have time to at the moment they post it.

Enter Instapaper. Integration with Twitter apps and all my browsers, and a iPhone app. Brilliant and simple. If it’s worth reading, I’ll “read it later.”

My other favorite tool is Readability, which makes most websites 20 times better by cutting out the sidebars, ads, Flash, and other crap and just giving me the article I want to read, in a wonderful typeface of my choosing, at the size I prefer.

I’ve set my father-in-law up with Readability, because he, too, hates the crap on websites that disturb good content. It’s good stuff. Arc90 deserves a medal.

So here’s how I read the internet:

1. Twitter to Instapaper (to read later) or to Safari/Readability
2. Safari to Instapaper or Readability (depending on time)
3. Google Reader in Fluid with Helvetireader
4. Email – I still prefer some email newsletters and Feedburner because it, again, is just the content.

More goodness:

• Give Me Something to Read – a list of the most “Instapapered” articles.
• Netvibes – was my primary for a long time. Works well with Fluid.
• Instapaper Restyled