# Fast & easy web surfing



## Robin Gardner (Jan 24, 2011)

Hi all,

Just to let you know about a website I developed - www.readingthenet.com which was specifically created for surfing the net via a Kindle (only supports Kindle 3 at the moment).

I originally created this site purely for my own use as I really wanted to use the Kindle for web browsing but got very frustrated with the slowness, zooming, scrolling etc. This site overcomes all these issues and should make surfing the net just as easy as reading an e-book.

This is the very first day that this website has been live so I would welcome any feedback, suggestions, bug reports etc.

Enjoy your Kindle surfing,

Robin


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## southerntype (Aug 17, 2010)

Exactly how have you made it "fast and easy?"


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## Robin Gardner (Jan 24, 2011)

southerntype said:


> Exactly how have you made it "fast and easy?"


Hi,

Well all the pages should load very fast (1-2 seconds over wi-fi). Web pages and images are reformatted for the kindle. The font size is made for easy reading (you can also change the size). All the text has been justified with margins and there are keyboard shortcuts (e.g. just press spacebar to get back to the homepage). You will not have to zoom or horizontal scroll at all.

Robin


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## mcostas (Nov 22, 2010)

I just tested it! Looks promising, thanks!


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## PhillyGuy (Dec 18, 2010)

Saving of the default font size is the biggest advantage I see over other tools I have been using, such as google.com/gwt/n.

If you are the first person to overcome the problem of web pages reverting to tiny default fonts, this is a big advance for lots of people.  Even if you aren't the first, it is a big advance to me because I have been constantly having to up the size of web fonts.

Biggest disappointment so far is that it does not seem to work with mobile.nytimes.com.  However, that would have been a short-term success due to the coming paywall.

Best site I have found for this so far (and that's only after playing with it for 30 minutes or so) is twp.com (Washington Post).  Haaretz.com seems to be a bit confusing, but acceptable.

I would be interested to know of web sites people are finding to be best suited to your tool.


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## Tam (Jan 7, 2010)

The first two websites I tried didn't work. Facebook and www.mail2web.com

On the second one it looked nice, just no blocks to enter email address and password.

Tried CNN and it was fast and easy to read - cool! So I bookmarked the website.


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## Robin Gardner (Jan 24, 2011)

PhillyGuy said:


> Saving of the default font size is the biggest advantage I see over other tools I have been using, such as google.com/gwt/n.
> 
> If you are the first person to overcome the problem of web pages reverting to tiny default fonts, this is a big advance for lots of people. Even if you aren't the first, it is a big advance to me because I have been constantly having to up the size of web fonts.
> 
> ...


>>Biggest disappointment so far is that it does not seem to work with mobile.nytimes.com.

My site uses the google mobilizer as the underlying engine to convert sites. It seems that some sites such as nytimes.com are not allowing mobilized versions of their webpages to appear. I'm afraid there is nothing I can do about this (apart from write my own mobilizing software).

>> I would be interested to know of web sites people are finding to be best suited to your tool.

This only the first day of the site being live so I'm still waiting for more feedback from people.

Thanks for taking the time to look at the site,

Robin


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## Robin Gardner (Jan 24, 2011)

Tam said:


> The first two websites I tried didn't work. Facebook and www.mail2web.com
> 
> On the second one it looked nice, just no blocks to enter email address and password.
> 
> Tried CNN and it was fast and easy to read - cool! So I bookmarked the website.


>>The first two websites I tried didn't work. Facebook and www.mail2web.com

Logging in to sites is currently not supported. This is mainly a tool for reading stuff on the net rather than for the more interactive type of things such as posting stuff etc.

>>Tried CNN and it was fast and easy to read - cool! So I bookmarked the website.

Great! This is more the type of thing my site is useful for.

Thanks for taking the time to provide feedback,

Robin


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

It is definitely quick.  

So far I like it.  

Thanks!


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## alphahelix (Jan 25, 2011)

I just tried it out and I have to say, browsing _is_ much faster. Many thanks for creating that website.


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## Robin Gardner (Jan 24, 2011)

I have just created a Reading the Net bookmarks MOBI file to allow easy access to the site and a few other popular sites (including this one). The link to the download can be found on the www.readingthenet homepage.

Robin


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## Joe Chiappetta (May 20, 2010)

I will check out your site asap. It is a wonder that Amazon doesnt do more themselves to fix this issue.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Joe Chiappetta said:


> I will check out your site asap. It is a wonder that Amazon doesnt do more themselves to fix this issue.


Not a wonder at all. . .they don't want to encourage 'surfing' as they're paying for the connection!


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## D/W (Dec 29, 2010)

Thanks, Robin!  I just tried your website to navigate to a few of my favorite sites and it works great. The .mobi file is a terrific idea too.


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## lalapurple (Jan 11, 2011)

Robin..thank you so much for your gift....have had a play and have found it as you say, so much quicker and easier to read....


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## Joe Chiappetta (May 20, 2010)

I have been using your tool Robin. It is so useful. Thank you. My one hope is that you can get it to work with pages that you have to log into like facebook or yahoo groups. But for browsing it is fantastic. It will be part of my regular usage pattern with Kindle.


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## Robin Gardner (Jan 24, 2011)

Thank you everyone for all the great feedback. Sorry about the lack of logging in to sites functionality. However it is on my todo list to address this.

Robin


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## Martel47 (Jun 14, 2010)

BTW, the site works on my old DX.


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## Robin Gardner (Jan 24, 2011)

Martel47 said:


> BTW, the site works on my old DX.


Thanks for letting me know. I only have a Kindle 3 so I was not able to test the site on older Kindle versions.

Robin


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## Xopher (May 14, 2009)

Just tried it with my K1 and it works quite well.


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## Robin Gardner (Jan 24, 2011)

For all you facebook users out there www.readingthenet.com will now redirect you to the mobile version of the site most suitable for viewing on the Kindle. I will be adding support for other sites that require a secure login (such as gmail etc) shortly.

Robin


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