Skimming the New York Times

The New York Times has released a new tool, which is currently being called Article Skimmer.

The idea is to recreate the experience of spreading out and scanning the Sunday New York Times. The form factor of the newspaper (particularly one as weighty as the Sunday Times), has many inherent benefits. The tactile nature of the experience is one thing that, to date, the Internet cannot match. However, NYT's Article Skimmer tries to capture the essence of skimming or scanning through the sections of the Times in order to spot articles of interest (that we might never find through the NYT's standard interface).

I like the clean no-nonsense look of the Skimmer. The skimmer seems a much "quieter" experience when compared to the main page, where screen real estate seems to be used to compete for my attention. I also like how new articles in the skimmer are presented on a white background while older articles are gradually faded with gray backgrounds. The keyboard shortcuts are also a nice touch.

In all, a pleasant reading experience... we'll see how long it lasts.