Arc90’s suite of products, which includes Donahue and Grade Guru, just to name a few, now includes a web and mobile-enabled app called Readability that makes it possible to read any web-based content without all of the advertisements and overpowering, cluttering graphics that interfere with the ability to see a complete article. Launched about two years ago as a very limited subscription-only based app, Readability quickly gained popularity and became available as a free downloadable browser add-on whose limited features were arguably intended to entice new users to become subscribers, readers who were so pleased with its capabilities that they paid the low monthly subscription fee in order to take full advantage of all that Readability had to offer, such as the ability to store content for later use and to use the feature on mobile devices.
This week, Readability announced its partnership with Amazon.com’s Kindle e-reader, enabling readers to send web content directly to their Kindles, minus all of the distracting superfluous material that hovers annoyingly around any given online article. Amazon’s e-reader users can opt to send content to their Kindles simply by clicking the “Send to Kindle” button on any supported website. Even better, Readability subscribers have no need to sync their Kindle devices, as any content that is added by the user is automatically sent at a predetermined time of day of the user’s choosing. The best part of this partnership is that this service is able to run off of the free browser add-on.
Ultimately, the excitement over this partnership will rest on the writers and publishers of online content. Arc90’s current highlighting feature of Readability is the news that 70% of the monthly subscription fee goes directly to the writers and designers of website content, allowing subscribers to feel confident that they were purchasing a comfortable product while supporting the people who wrote the material. Readability’s parent platform has enabled a free embeddable “Send to Kindle” button for web authors, which means any number of blogs will now be available as Kindle documents. This feature won’t replace Amazon’s blog subscription service in which blog content is automatically synced to subscriber’s e-readers, but those readers who choose to visit an online blog can send the content to their devices free of charge at the touch of a “Send to Kindle” button.
Introducing Amazon Kindle Support for Readability from Arc90 on Vimeo.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.
