Idea Is Queen!

To synchronize status of read/unread RSS feeds at different computers/locations, we can take advantage of the likes of Google Reader, Bloglines, NewsGator, netvibes, as long as there is Internet connectivity. It’s useful enough for most users, but not for the ones (me) relaying heavily on offline feeds readers. I endlessly face a problem of sorting out feeds that I have read and that I haven’t between my handheld (Acer N300) (feeds are cached for offline reading) and desktop computer, since where I’m working doesn’t provide WIFI connectivity.

Some possible improvement of online RSS readers:

• a.) Online reader big-cos develop a version of various mobile OS platforms compatible offline reader. (or at least for Windows Mobile 5…)
• b.) I can select feeds I want to download to my handheld. (either all newest, unread feeds, or topics interesting me)
• c.) During offline reading, I can mark links or a specific term (words/phrase) inside a post, and when I back to online reading environment and sync them, all the marked links will be automatically opened in new tabs/windows of a browser. For marked terms, words/phrase become input as keywords, and return search results from wikipedia or Google. I want this feature because as an offline reader, I sometimes find additional info of a related link in an article, and I click it, only to suddenly realize that I am in a galaxy far far away from cyberspace.
• d.) After synchronizing, the reader of online version then show what I haven’t read yet in one section, and read feeds in another section as reference.

This idea is nothing innovative, but really a savior for folks like me…

ps. Regardless some inconvenience, offline reading is a good way to get rid of continuous partial attention syndrome.

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