BeeLine Reader
Productivity
reading tool
SHOW HN2013
739points
262comments
#6of 1,739 in 2013
Top 1%of 2013 by points
How HN took it
DebatedReal support and real criticism
44 positive, 47 neutral or asking, 21 mixed, 59 critical, out of 171 comments about the project. Thread score -0.11.
Performance: 14 for, 17 againstDesign: 7 for, 21 againstIdea: 15 for, 11 againstExecution: 2 for, 9 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Makes it easier to follow lines and read faster
From 3 comments
I read a lot and I read really fast too. So line skipping is a problem, especially on longer lines. This thing combines the old Readability bookmarklet with the gradient. I saw…
vsviridov on HNHaving recently looked into speed reading a bit, this seems to do a quite good job at filling the role of a pacer without actually requiring any manual interaction by the reader.…
Daiz on HNJust a counterpoint to all the negativity: The increase in speed was instantly obvious for me. Will be giving this a try for a few weeks at least.
nazgulnarsil on HN
Clever idea
From 2 comments
At first glance: wow that's ugly. Then I read it. Fast. Consuming nearly at a paragraph at a glance when I usually can digest only a fragment of a sentence up to a couple of…
GrinningFool on HNHmmmm... I'm sure it'll need a linked scientific study to actually back up the claim. (And every speed-reading product I've seen has usually had a decrease in comprehension…
crazygringo on HN
Objections
Colour scheme is ugly, distracting and hard on the eyes
From 4 comments
I'm initially inclined to dismiss this as ugly and distracting, especially with the default colors being very similar to the traditional link/visited HTML colors. It would be…
mutagen on HN>A study designed and carried out at Stanford University showed an average reading speed increase of over 10 percent for first time users of BeeLine Reader. Many seasoned users…
jere on HNI find this incredibly hard to read, my eyes feel like they're being pulled to sudden colour changes. I find this extremely difficult to scan, as well.
IanCal on HNThat page physically hurts my eyes to read.
count on HN
No published study backs the speed claims
From 2 comments
>A study designed and carried out at Stanford University showed an average reading speed increase of over 10 percent for first time users of BeeLine Reader. Many seasoned users…
jere on HNHmmmm... I'm sure it'll need a linked scientific study to actually back up the claim. (And every speed-reading product I've seen has usually had a decrease in comprehension…
crazygringo on HN
Patent pending claim criticised
From 1 comment
Others have pointed this out but: "BeeLine Reader is a patent pending technology" Well, there goes any respect I might have had for this. It is not obvious in every respect, but…
quadrangle on HN
Bookmarklet breaks on HTTPS and some sites
From 3 comments
Well, this looks interesting, but doesn't work with HTTPS. Which is a problem.
gnud on HNNote to author: does not work on medium.com
ahmett on HNwell, it significantly mangles things on The Guardian. basically, all of the little "NSA" tags in this article:…
moron4hire on HN
Requests
Browser extension or native integration
From 3 comments
can i get this as a firefox extension?
dsschnau on HNAside from the bookmarklet, I love it. Without an extension, though, I don't see myself using it. Hopefully we'll see one soon.
bal00ns on HNI definitely noticed that I could read faster with this. And the colors were super obnoxious, so grayscale was my choice. What I would really appreciate was if it could be done…
gamerDude on HN
Configurable colour schemes
From 2 comments
Installed, tested with a couple of articles. It does the job it claims to do. A few things: it would be nice to be able to configure the plugin to limit the color variations. I'd…
mekoka on HNSo this is obviously a problem, right? We had MagicScroll [0] which got a ton of positive hits, and now this. I believe there have also been a few other attempts along the way as…
josh2600 on HN
PDF and e-reader support
From 3 comments
I would pay to get a PDF version of this. I read PDF documents all the time.
sherjilozair on HNAny plans to make this available as a plugin for ebook readers?
elaineo on HNI'd be interested in something like this being used in a e-reader app like Kindle or Aldiko
flanbiscuit on HN
Questions
Where is the research study linked?
From 2 comments
>A study designed and carried out at Stanford University showed an average reading speed increase of over 10 percent for first time users of BeeLine Reader. Many seasoned users…
jere on HNInteresting concept. Do they have a research paper out describing the results in more detail? A couple of problems: 1) beelining doesn't work well with links in text 2) Doesn't…
dirtyaura on HN
Does it work with other bookmarklets such as MagicScroll?
From 1 comment
Nice! Can BeeLine be made to work with MagicScroll? Currenly if i click one bookmarklet the other one breaks.
kul_ on HN
Alternatives named
MagicScroll
From 2 comments
So this is obviously a problem, right? We had MagicScroll [0] which got a ton of positive hits, and now this. I believe there have also been a few other attempts along the way as…
josh2600 on HNNice! Can BeeLine be made to work with MagicScroll? Currenly if i click one bookmarklet the other one breaks.
kul_ on HN
Spreeder
From 1 comment
Also check out http://www.spreeder.com A different approach but also bookmarklet
jianshen on HN
Readability
From 2 comments
I was ready to call B.S. on this but after actually seeing it in action, it seems very reasonable. I wonder why this hasn't been done before. I happen to skip lines very often,…
cliveowen on HNI read a lot and I read really fast too. So line skipping is a problem, especially on longer lines. This thing combines the old Readability bookmarklet with the gradient. I saw…
vsviridov on HN