Kieran McGovern writes graded reading materials for English language learners. He runs language learning website eslreading.org and blogs at This Interested Me.

I like to print articles I find online but many of my students don’t. “It’s easier to read on the screen,” they say. “And printers are always breaking down.”

True enough, though staring at a screen for extended periods is no fun either. Nor is wading through a sea of extraneous material like adverts, banners and buttons.

One solution is PDF files – but they can be a chore to produce and involve downloads, special plug-ins and other complications. What is needed is something that cuts down the work for everyone.

Step forward the deceptively sinister sounding Arc90 Lab Experiment. They’ve invented “a simple tool that makes reading on the Web more enjoyable by removing the clutter around what you’re reading.” (Source: Arc90.com)

That’s a big claim, but it’s justified. You can see how it works at eslreading.org and you can download the free Readability tool directly from Arc90.com. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this fantastic web tool.