Google is working on a Chrome reading mode, try it out

Google wants to give your peepers a break. Google Chromium Evangelist Francois Beaufort laid out early versions of Reader Mode for Chrome desktop and mobile in a post today on Google Plus (of course). Reader Mode is designed to make on-screen text easier to absorb, by removing unnecessary pictures, boxes, buttons and ads. Safari has long featured a Reader Mode, and extensions such as Readability offer similar services for Chrome, but now Google is getting into the game itself with these Reader-friendly experiments.

Google's project is based on Chromium's open-source DOM Distiller, meaning technical minds can poke around right in the code. Reader Mode for mobile devices has been lurking in the background of Chrome since late last year, and it's accessible by heading to chrome://flags#enable-reader-mode-toolbar-icon, hitting "Enable" and relaunching Chrome. The Reader Mode icon should pop up in your toolbar for applicable pages after that. On desktop, run Chrome with the --enable-dom-distiller switch to unlock the "Distill page" menu option. Happy reading!