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Results from the Browser Features Survey
(connect.mozilla.org)
A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox
As expected, nobody cares about "reader mode". Only once in my life has it ever come in handy... It was a website that was so badly designed I swore never to go back to it ever again.
I forget what it was but apparently I wasn't the only one and thus, it must've died a fast death as I haven't seen it ever again (otherwise I'd remember).
Basically, any website that gets users so frustrated that they resort to reader/simplified mode isn't going to last very long. If I had my way I would change the messages:
"This website appears to be total shit. Do you want Firefox to try to fix it so your eyes don't bleed trying to get through it?"
I want an extension that does this, actually! It doesn't need to actually modify the page. Just give me a virtual assistant to comiserate with...
"The people who made this website should have their browser's back button removed entirely as punishment for erecting this horror!"
Me, it makes me a bit sad it's so low. Reader Mode is one the really cool features of Firefox, but I understand that consuming web content by reading is rapidly on the decline, as a result of the comparatively low information density of video and audio allowing bigger ad space compared to text.
Plus we know from the last 10-15 years how much reading comprehension has nosedived since the proliferation of video content.
What reader mode needs is a (possibly crowdsourced) setting to be the default view on a per-site basis. (I say this because my main problem with it is forgetting it exists and failing to toggle it on.)
To be fair, I imagine an entire browser just like that for a long time. You have your settings and every website would look the same. A default frontend for everything. No Javascript, just the content.
Ah, yes, the Web as it was intended to be, with semantic markup and separate presentation/styling that the user was not only able, but encouraged by design, to override as he saw fit.
I've spent pretty much my entire adulthood being low-key pissed off about how that got thoroughly and comprehensively fucked as soon as the marketing fuckwads got their hands on the Web.