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Helvetireader in Mozilla Prism
I switch back and forth between Netvibes and Google Reader for reading RSS feeds. The Netvibes box layout is great for scanning lots of new items, but Google Reader lets you power through content more quickly.
Today I noticed a co-worker using Google Reader with the Helvetireader userscript. Helvetireader applies a clean theme to Google Reader with an emphasis on readability.
Because Google Reader is a browser-based application, using Helvetireader requires installing the appropriate extension for your browser.
I'm not a big fan of installing too many extensions, particularly just to accommodate a site-specific enhancement like Helvetireader provides. This is where creating a site-specific browser (SSB) becomes advantageous. An SSB turns a single web site into a self-contained application. This provides finer-grained control over the experience of a site like Google Reader without interfering with general purpose browsing functionality.
I'm currently on Linux, so Mozilla Prism is my best choice of SSB provider. On OS X, Fluid accomplishes the same goal and provides more features.
Before downloading Prism directly from the Mozilla side, I ran a quick check to see if there was already a pre-packaged version of it available for Ubuntu.
apt-cache search prism
Not only was there a prism package, but there was also a pre-packaged build of Google Reader for Prism. Nice!
sudo apt-get install prism-google-reader
I initially thought that Prism supported userscripts like Helvetireader natively, but it turns out you still need the Greasemonkey add-on. There's a Greasemonkey add-on built specifically for Prism available on Github. Building it is simple:
git clone http://github.com/teramako/greasemonkey-for-prism.git
cd greasemonkey-for-prism
sh build.sh
From within Prism go to Tools > Add-ons > Install... and choose the XPI file created in the greasemonkey-for-prism directory above. Then restart the Google Reader Prism app.
In the settings menu, you can now install any userscript. Go to Settings > Greasemonkey > Download User Script... and enter the URL for the Helvetireader script (currently http://helvetireader.com/helvetireader2.user.js). Now you should see Google Reader with the Helvetireader theme.
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