Here, look! New Google service strips out ads and pix from websites

What if I were to tell you I've found a way to use a thus-far unannounced Google service to strip out the graphics from your favorite Web sites? Something ideal for Web browsing over dial-up PCs and low-bandwidth, non-broadband handsets?

Well I think I stumbled on it.

This unbranded Google "service," if that's what you call it, is so stealth that Google doesn't even give it a title. And ya can't find it on Google Labs, either.

OK, let's have some fun with this one. Ready for a tour?

Note the URL: http://www/google.com/gwt/n. I suspect the key to this is "gwt/n," but I don't know what it means. And the page title (not shown above) just reads "Enter An URL." Which we are about ready to do.

Now, we are going to Enter an URL (https://www.zdnet.com) and check the No Images box. 

Sorry had to make that pix so small but we only have so much width to work with and I wanted to show you the browser address line as well as what we are about to ask this Google thig-a-ma-jig-whatever to do. 

So now let's click "Go" and see what we get, K?

Now that's interesting. You see our Home Page without any graphics or ads. Of course we want you to see both, but apparently, Google thinks low-bandwidth users of its new thig-a-ma-jig-whatever might just want the bare essentials.

Fortunately for us hard-toiling wordsmiths who blog away to make you even smarter and more informed than you are, this Google-provided  thig-a-ma-jig-whatever keeps text relatively intact.  And it is still a Google service. I know this because when I click on a link in the screen grab I just showed you, not only can I read the text of the article I clicked on, but the URL field still reads "Google."

Which means that I am still on the Google site, and presumably, have used this Google thig-a-ma-jig-whatever to generate this view:

Hmm, dunno. Maybe I've stumbled on to some sort of a stealth Google service for low-bandwidth PCs and phones?