Meador Manor

iGoogle

I love using iGoogle as my web browser home page, but today the geniuses at Google decided to switch everyone over to “Canvas View.”  This mucked up the appearance of my page more than any of their earlier unannounced tweaks.

My version of the page shows my Google Reader entries, Gmails, Google Calendar, weather data and radar, as well as headline feeds from CNN, Boing Boing, digg.com’s Technology news, and Slate Magazine.  Suddenly all of those feeds and emails had two-line descriptions/previews, lengthening the page so that it scrolled right off the bottom of the screen.  And I HATE scrolling my home page!

Like most things Google, the primary iGoogle page has minimal visible controls.  Just as they don’t tell you what is going on, they don’t tell you how to fix it.  But a <irony>Google Search</irony> showed how to do it.  You have to use the “My Account” link at the top right of the iGoogle screen to then access the iGoogle Settings.  Then you can uncheck the “Show a short description for each feed article” option.

InstaPaper website

I’m still thoroughly enjoying my Amazon Kindle and Apple iPhone 3G, and there is a great website/application that helps me capture online articles for them: Instapaper.

I installed their shortcut into Firefox and now, whenever I see a lengthy article I would like to peruse later, I click Instapaper’s Read Later shortcut up in my menu bar.  The article is saved and later I can visit the Instapaper website on my Kindle or use the Instapaper application on my iPhone to quickly access and read it.  There is an option to show the article in text-only mode, which is useful for the Kindle.

The Instapaper website also has a Give me something to read link where interesting articles are collected – I found several of interest.  But for me the richest mine for great articles has been the books article archive at Salon.com.  I once was a paid premium member of that service, but gave it up because the gems were too few for the cost, but lately the service has been free and accessible.  Another source of lengthy and interesting articles is The New Atlantis.

I still find the Kindle far preferable to the iPhone for this sort of thing, since it has a much bigger screen and the E ink technology is easier on the eyes.  One simply has to scroll too much and too often on the iPhone when reading a long article.

So, if you have a Kindle or an iPhone or just need an easy way to save online articles for later viewing with your computer’s browser, I highly recommend Instapaper.