From 363505270461b4dc9c022727fd9db9e12796e838 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Rohan Kumar Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2023 22:12:56 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] New note: Screen2x and DOM Distiller --- content/notes/screen2x-and-dom-distiller.md | 12 ++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/notes/screen2x-and-dom-distiller.md diff --git a/content/notes/screen2x-and-dom-distiller.md b/content/notes/screen2x-and-dom-distiller.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..342e7de --- /dev/null +++ b/content/notes/screen2x-and-dom-distiller.md @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@ +--- +title: "Screen2x and DOM Distiller" +date: 2023-08-08T22:12:56-07:00 +--- +I just tried Chromium's "Screen2x" article distiller (experimental in `chrome://flags`). + +Before, the DOM Distiller removed elements far too aggressively. The new Screen2x implementation has gone in the opposite direction: it barely removes any of the page's non-navigation structure. It does, however, remove all the images. `figure` elements that aren't images (e.g. block-quotes with citations in `figcaption` children, or code snippets with descriptions in their captions) lose their captions. Inline `code` and `samp` elements lose their semantics and styling, becoming plain inline text (code blocks in `pre` blocks remain preserved). + +In other words, it's replaced one set of false-positives with another, and now removes too _little_ of the page structure. An improvement, but not enough to compete with alternatives. + +Reading Mode now opens in a sidebar on desktop, instead of replacing the page. Users are expected to use the Reading Mode and the regular page side-by-side now, so it won't replace ads. I smell infighting between ads and browser teams. +