5 ms·

Asymmetrica adds extra spaces to website text to improve reading comprehension

10 points by ivank 11y ago

subtenante 11y ago
It's interesting, but I find peculiar the choice of the words which are overspaced. I would expect works like 'that', 'from', 'with' far more important for chunking than 'to' for instance.
IanCal 11y ago
Might be a placebo-like effect for me, I'd have to have a really good setup to experiment with whether or not it helps or is really noticeable without knowing beforehand if it's been applied or not (or applied randomly instead). This looks wrong. The extra gaps look like pauses and they're not in sensible places for pauses. That then made me think of someone doing a Christopher Walken impression.
tobias2014 11y ago
If you intend to try the plugin: "Please create an Asym account to activate the extension. It's simple and we don't give your email address to third parties! We'll send you a confirmation email with a link to activate your account, so please make sure your email address is valid and correct." I wonder if the addition of spaces is done client side or server side (and as such would send all your website texts to them)?
- ivank 11y ago
  The source code in the Firefox extension suggests it's all done server-side.
pbowyer 11y ago
Do read their privacy policy before installing: http://www.asym.co/privacy http://www.asym.co/privacy Especially the paragraphs beginning "In order to provide" and "When you visit". There's a lot of data being collected.
taku_pl 11y ago
Those extra spaces feel like I'm walking upstairs and I suddenly miss a step. Completely throws me Knocks me out of the rhythm every time. Although I spent some time as an editor, so that's probably it.
irridia 11y ago
We've removed some irrelevant boilerplate from the Privacy Policy, and updated the FAQ. We collect as little as possible, though we completely respect anyone's privacy concerns and decisions. We welcome feedback since this is a critical part of building our users' trust. Yes, the processing is performed by our server-side language models, and is never stored. Ken info@asym.co

10 points by ivank 11y ago

It's interesting, but I find peculiar the choice of the words which are overspaced. I would expect works like 'that', 'from', 'with' far more important for chunking than 'to' for instance.

IanCal 11y ago

Might be a placebo-like effect for me, I'd have to have a really good setup to experiment with whether or not it helps or is really noticeable without knowing beforehand if it's been applied or not (or applied randomly instead). This looks wrong. The extra gaps look like pauses and they're not in sensible places for pauses. That then made me think of someone doing a Christopher Walken impression.

tobias2014 11y ago

If you intend to try the plugin: "Please create an Asym account to activate the extension. It's simple and we don't give your email address to third parties! We'll send you a confirmation email with a link to activate your account, so please make sure your email address is valid and correct." I wonder if the addition of spaces is done client side or server side (and as such would send all your website texts to them)?

ivank 11y ago
The source code in the Firefox extension suggests it's all done server-side.

pbowyer 11y ago

Do read their privacy policy before installing: http://www.asym.co/privacy http://www.asym.co/privacy Especially the paragraphs beginning "In order to provide" and "When you visit". There's a lot of data being collected.

taku_pl 11y ago

Those extra spaces feel like I'm walking upstairs and I suddenly miss a step. Completely throws me Knocks me out of the rhythm every time. Although I spent some time as an editor, so that's probably it.

irridia 11y ago

We've removed some irrelevant boilerplate from the Privacy Policy, and updated the FAQ. We collect as little as possible, though we completely respect anyone's privacy concerns and decisions. We welcome feedback since this is a critical part of building our users' trust. Yes, the processing is performed by our server-side language models, and is never stored. Ken info@asym.co