Finch.

The Internet is a series of tubes. Finch is a packet of Drano.

To get started, just type the URL (Web address) you want to go to:
Let us know what you love and hate about Finch. Take the one-page, seven-question survey.
Bookmarklet: Drag this to your bookmarks bar, and click it when you need to... Finchify This Page! (or Unfinchify.)
Browse securely using the encrypted version of Finch.

What does Finch do?

Finch makes slow Internet bearable, by stripping away the fat of web pages, leaving just the content. It takes out CSS, images, flash, metadata, iframes, purple mongooses (mongeese?) and more, meaning less for your computer to load. For example, the New York Times homepage is over 110KB, and uses external resources (images, scripts, what have you) that make it amount to about 1.4MB. Finch trims that down to 84KB, which doesn't look as pretty, but is 94% less for your computer to download.

What doesn't Finch do?

Make you coffee. Pages viewed through Finch also won't run JavaScript, so AJAX apps like facebook definitely won't work, and at this stage sites using cookies won't function properly, meaning you won't be able to log in.

How else can I do it?

As an alternative to Finch in situations where you can install software on your computer, you can install lynx or links if you're familiar with the command line, or Opera Mini.

Can I use Finch to look at child porn (or other nasty things)?

No. While finch acts as a proxy, it passes on your real identity to the server in X-Forwarded-For and X-Finch-Identity headers. Besides, Finch filters out all images anyway, so what's the point?

Credits

I probably owe a big thanks in the inspiration of Finch to my school's IT department, and their craptacular Internet speeds. Finch is written in the Python programming language, and uses Google App Engine's WebOb framework. To parse the (X)HTML DOM, we use Beautiful Soup.

The Rules

The following is a summary of rules imposed by Google on applications running on its App Engine service.
Anything you view using Finch must not be:

Infringing copyright
Pornographic or offensive
Content related to hate, hacking, gambling or drugs
Content related to any other illegal activity
In violation of the Google App Engine Program Policies
Anything else particularly nasty

Speedup Windows

Finch - Sent using Google Toolbar