Apple claims:
It works like this: As you browse the web, Safari detects if you’re on a web page with an article.
Something like Reader might actually turn Safari into my main browser – depending on how well it works.
So, how does this magical “detection”-thingy work? It works on sites like heise, SPIEGEL, or The Wall Street Journal. But it doesn’t work on TUAW or on my blog. Does Safari 5 have a list of well-known mainstream media news sites? Is this what Steve Jobs meant when he said:
I don’t want to see us descend into a nation of bloggers.
I mostly read blog articles nowadays, and Safari Reader is pretty useless to me for now.
Update: Funny thing, it works on Daring Fireball. Maybe this is because John Gruber is considered mainstream now ;)
Update: ars technica claims (Safari Reader enabled):
Safari 5 contains heuristics that will detect if a webpage contains an article and it will present a “Reader button” in the Smart Address field.
Well, how nice for your site. Which heuristics? I couldn’t find any hints in the Safari Dev Center.
Update: It gets funnier :-) With the last update, this article just became a Safari Reader heuristic winner. So it’s about content length?
Update: It looks like it. Yay :-D