Wordpress Estimated Reading Time Plugin
Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes
It was about time I automated the “reading time” info that I put at the beginning of all my posts. Today I whipped up a little wordpress plugin that will add the reading time to the top of any post on any wordpress blog. Now anyone can add that useful bit of information to their posts.
If you are up for giving the plugin a go please download it and send feedback my way.
Regarding the estimation of reading time: I used 150 words per minute (slightly below average) and 250 words per minute (slightly above average) as the range. I would love any feedback on whether or not the estimation needs to be augmented.
Updates to come:
- Options dashboard: will allow for changes in words per minute numbers.
- Posting data to the feed: need to figure out how to, if possible, get the reading time data into the feed.
this is awesome, i’ll certainly try it on some of my WP projects. thanks eric!
David
23 Feb 09 at 8:03 pm
I would like to install this plugin – I think it’s neat. The only problem is my posts tend to be very long, and many of them go to 1200 words. So I’m afraid the plugin would discourage many people from reading.
Thanks though! I tweeted about this, and hopefully the idea takes hold!
Monica O'Brien
23 Feb 09 at 9:22 pm
Hi Eric – I know you have made mention of the fact you write lengthy posts, and I have seen you note the time to read them, but do you find people saying, “gee, 7 minutes, I’ll pass on this?” Just curious…!
mp/m
Mike Maddaloni - The Hot Iron
24 Feb 09 at 12:36 am
Right. We did have a conversation about this the other day. And I think one of the things we talked about was having an algorithm factor in not just the number of words the post contains but also the grade level at which the content is written. Then we discussed the paradoxical wish to write at the lowest grade level reasonably possible, especially when explaining complex topics. So to be fully optimized in what you’re attempting with this plugin, one could explain it: “See Eric write. Users know how long it will take. Users and Eric are happy.”
Evan
24 Feb 09 at 9:29 am
@David: glad to hear you like it. Shoot me some feedback on how I can make it better.
@Monica: My posts tend to be longer as well, which is why I think this plugin is important. I find that people tend to overestimate how long it will take to read a post. I think when people see your 1200 word posts with a note that says 5 – 8 minutes reading time they may be more apt to read them. I don’t have the data to back that up though. It is just a hunch.
@Mike I think some people simply overestimate the time is takes to read a post so I figured showing them the data would encourage them to read. I believe that a number of decisions (around activities like reading and energy use) that are made based on biases would be made differently if just a little bit of data was available, hence the plugin.
Eric Olson
24 Feb 09 at 9:30 am
@Evan I think the dashboard update will help. This will allow the words per minute data to be changed to reflect how difficult the content is to go through. I have a nice table of WPM data now that I can use to make this work. Remember – this is only version 1.1. There will be more and the more feedback I get the better it will be.
Eric Olson
24 Feb 09 at 9:32 am
hi. Thanks for plugin
perfect.
Regards
baron
24 Feb 09 at 11:07 am
Hey there, nice plugin.
I will have to download and try it. Thanks for creating this.
George Serradinho
24 Feb 09 at 11:36 am
How to change the “Reading time” text?
Thiago
24 Feb 09 at 11:51 am
@Thiago You need to edit the plugin (which you can do inside of wordpress if you’d like). To edit the output text simply edit the phrases in the “echo” pieces of code (in the if/else statement).
Eric Olson
24 Feb 09 at 12:15 pm
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25 Feb 09 at 8:20 am
Interesting. The potential problem here is it makes no determination of the value of my time in reading a post. If it is a long article and we say “10 minutes” I may skip it but if I start reading a long post and actually get into it, I may be prepared to read it. I may have skipped this otherwise useful and interesting article if I just thought I didn’t have 10 minutes.
(The converse is true)
I think we also need to consider how to format posts to make it simple for people to skim-read in the first place:
http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/
Perhaps adding summaries to the start of articles is a good compromise?
David Cross
25 Feb 09 at 10:35 am
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1 May 09 at 12:13 pm
Is it possible to only get this to show for posts, not pages?
Thank you.
Nick
10 Jun 09 at 10:48 am
Hey Nick – That functionality isn’t built in and I am not sure if it is possible to build off hand (although I suspect it probably is).
Eric Olson
15 Jun 09 at 8:59 am
Hey Eric– great idea but I ran into a little snafu: if you truncate how your posts display (with a “more…”, etc.) in the main page of your blog, the estimates come out wrong and increase once you click on the post to view the whole thing.
The plugin should take into consideration the full length of the post even when only a portion of it is displayed in a given view.
Aral Balkan
19 Apr 10 at 3:03 am