The Real Arms Race

Is the problem that Safari 5’s reader feature strips out the most annoying advertising and combines multipage articles, or that sites like Jim Lynch’s use such tactics in the first place?

Multipage articles, text-link ads, and all that sneaky stuff that websites do annoys the reader, but they does even more to cheapen online advertising, because clicks and views become more worthless as a whole. Meanwhile, sites that don’t use these tactics lose money as a direct result, because of those greedy bastards who want a bigger share of the pie than they are entitled to. It’s not like the pool of advertising money just got bigger because they put up more ad spots.

Reader isn’t automatic, and this is the important thing: users will only use it if they find it more convenient. On a site like the New York Times or Ars Technica, they probably won’t use it. On a site like Lynch’s, they probably will. If this serves to bring a decent user experience and an equal ad market to the web, then I can’t wait to see more browser makers adopt it.