The Web is a great place to search for information--and a lousy place to actually read it. When you find long articles that you want to read, you have to click through to multiple pages, contend with ads and graphics that distract your attention, and deal with poor printing options. Firefox add-on iReader may change that for you.

With iReader installed, reading long articles in Firefox can be just as simple as searching. It installs as a small icon in the shape of the letter R in the Address Bar. When you come to an article you want to read, click the iReader icon in the Address Bar, and the entire article pops up over your screen in a single, scrollable window--no matter how many pages it spans--in a large easy-to-read font. The links remain live, so you don't give up Web interactivity when you use it. iReader gives you some additional features as well, including being able to share the article on Facebook on Twitter, or e-mailing the article via e-mail.

I had problems printing with iReader, though. On my PC it prints only the first page of any article, then prints a blank page, and ignores the rest. Vendor Samabox did not respond to PCWorld's queries about this, so if you encounter problems, chances are you're on your own, too.

Still, despite that one shortcoming, iReader is an excellent tool for anyone who reads long articles on the Web. iReader is much like a similar feature in Safari, so if you're also a Mac user or a PC user of Safari, you'll feel right at home using it.

Note: This link takes you to the add-on's page at Mozilla.org, where you can automatically install the file into your Firefox browser.

--Preston Gralla