Leaving Instapaper for Readability
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Leaving Instapaper for Readability
1–10 of 47 posts
Re: Leaving Instapaper for Readability
#2I left because I felt readability has a lot more features I like. The ability to hit ` on any webpage is awesome. I am also a click away from saving the article.
The latest iteration of Instapaper looks nicer in some ways, (looks like Reeder was an inspiration), but is painfully annoying in others. i.e I now have to touch twice to delete an article. Instapaper needs a stripped down Lite version that all it does is show articles and then let you delete them.
My 2c.
Re: Leaving Instapaper for Readability
#3Regarding the thought that Instapaper is somehow robbing writers of ad revenue, I think it needs to be noted that you actually have to visit an article to add it to your Instapaper queue. On top of that, Readability's model of paying authors isn't all that effective, a recent article on The Brooks Review[1] showed that even a moderately popular site such as his generates nearly no income from Readability's service, especially now that the service has gone free with optional payments.
Also, what happens to all those authors that don't opt in to receive payments from Readability? Does readability just take money on their behalf and not actually pay it out to them? It seems like that would be a legal grey area.
Re: Leaving Instapaper for Readability
#4Do you feel guilty when you skip commercials on your TiVo? I don't, sorry.
An ad on a page is no different than a billboard or some other passive advertising. I am not required to notice it.
Re: Leaving Instapaper for Readability
#5Regarding the thought that Instapaper is somehow robbing writers of ad revenue, I think it needs to be noted that you actually have to visit an article to add it to your Instapaper queue. On top of that, Readability's model of paying authors isn't all that effective, a recent article on The Brooks Review[1] showed that even a moderately popular site such as his generates nearly no income from Readability's service, e…
it needs to be noted that you actually have to visit an article to add it to your Instapaper queue
That isn't true. Lots of sites/aggregators add "Read it later" buttons to articles so it will go right into your queue and then there is the "Browse" page on Instapaper itself where you can add articles as well.
Re: Leaving Instapaper for Readability
#6Regarding the thought that Instapaper is somehow robbing writers of ad revenue, I think it needs to be noted that you actually have to visit an article to add it to your Instapaper queue. On top of that, Readability's model of paying authors isn't all that effective, a recent article on The Brooks Review[1] showed that even a moderately popular site such as his generates nearly no income from Readability's service, e…
it needs to be noted that you actually have to visit an article to add it to your Instapaper queue That isn't true. Lots of sites/aggregators add "Read it later" buttons to articles so it will go right into your queue and then there is the "Browse" page on Instapaper itself where you can add articles as well.
Fair point, some Twitter clients let you send a tweeted link straight to Instapaper too, but in my experience the overwhelming majority of links I add come from me using the bookmarklet when I visit a web page.
Re: Leaving Instapaper for Readability
#7I left Instapaper for Readability as well, but my reason was entirely different and a first for me (at least on the web): Marco. I'm not even sure what it is about him exactly, but after listening to some of his Build and Analyze podcasts and reading his slanted blog posts I just found myself not wanting to use or support Instapaper anymore.
Re: Leaving Instapaper for Readability
#8As far as aesthetics go I actually prefer the approach Marco takes with Instapaper. I think Readability does have more of a polished feel but in no way does this polish make the service any more usable. The Instapaper apps are top notch in my book.
The moral angle of feeling guilty and thus using Readabilty to compensate authors is total garbage. I disagree with this guilt trip blog post on so many levels. The 30% cut that Readability takes is the whole reason Readability exists. Essentially the writers are providing free content to Readability that they get to make a nice profit on. This is exploiting the writers to a far greater degree than Instapaper. Also, not every article I save I deem worthy of a contribution to the author. I may utterly hate an author's guts and am simply reading their article to better understand their insane philosophies before I decide I despise them. I'll fall back on an old Techdirt term: CwF+RtB. If I like a writer and want to support them I'll visit their site enough to earn them ad impressions, or I'll buy their book, or I purchase something using their affiliate link. I certainly don't need Readability paying people for me while pocketing a handsome chunk of change in the process.
Re: Leaving Instapaper for Readability
#9I think Readability's model is a little presumptuous. Why do they get to decide unilaterally that they deserve 30% of the revenue? It's not like the App Store where you agreed to it. Given all the work that goes into creating an article, is extracting the text worth 30%? If I was a publisher, I wouldn't think so.
To me, Instapaper's approach is much more straightforward. You have to have gone to the publisher's site in the first place and seen all of the ads. You pay a flat fee for the Instapaper app, and can subscribe if you like the service. Why make it more complicated than it has to be?
Re: Leaving Instapaper for Readability
#10Do you feel guilty when you skip commercials on your TiVo? I don't, sorry. An ad on a page is no different than a billboard or some other passive advertising. I am not required to notice it.
There's a slight difference.
Billboards don't help support anything of value to you (namely the road you are driving on). They are advertising for the sake of advertising.
Commercials on radio/TV/web fund the content you are enjoying. Of course you can flip the channel or have AdBlock or whatever, but you're actively taking revenue away from the creator. You may not have a problem with that (I certainly don't).