Recently an RSS Bandit user made a feature request on our forums about a Good Google Reader Feature and wrote

On RSS Bandit, while reading all the news from a feed at the same time on the reading pane (feed selected) and scrolling down to read all news, you scroll all the page and nothing is marked as readed. This only happen when you select the message on Feed Details. On Google Reader every new you scroll down became marked as readed automatically. It's a very simple and natural scheme. Works really well, just check out http://reader.google.com.

I checked out Google Reader and I had to agree that the feature is pretty hot, so yesterday I brushed up on my knowledge of the HTML DOM and added the feature to RSS Bandit. Below is a video showing the new feature in action

What's funny is that Andy Edmonds asked me for this feature a couple of years ago and I never attempted to add it because at the time I was intimidated by Javascript and DHTML. It turned out to be a lot easier than I thought.

RSS Bandit users can expect to see this feature in the next beta of the Jubilee release which should be available in the next week and a half. It would be sooner but unfortunately I'm on my way to Las Vegas to attend CES for most of next week and Torsten is on vacation. By the way, users of Windows Vista should be glad to know that the next beta will finally run fine on that operating system.

NOTE: The slowness in the video is due to the fact that my CPU is pegged at 100% while capturing the screencast with Windows Media Encoder. This feature doesn't noticeably affect the performance of the application while running regularly.


 

Saturday, January 6, 2007 1:50:02 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Very cool and useful! Thank you.
Stefan
Saturday, January 6, 2007 5:04:27 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Hi Dare,

Nice feature. When's Jubilee going to be final, though? I can't wait :)

Mauricio
Saturday, January 6, 2007 8:14:47 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Never admit that you're intimidated by Javascript and DHTML. It's bad form ;)
R Pupkin
Saturday, January 6, 2007 10:58:14 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
> my CPU is pegged at 100% while capturing the screencast with Windows Media Encoder.

You don't have a dual core CPU? How 2004.. c'mon, treat yourself, you deserve it.
Sunday, January 7, 2007 1:33:23 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
As Paris says, "That's Hot!"
Sunday, January 7, 2007 10:02:39 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
As Carman says, "Kick Ass!"
Monday, January 8, 2007 11:17:29 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
"Niiice!" Highfive!
Borat
Tuesday, January 9, 2007 10:44:06 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I would be happy with a second read button below the content. If I click it before scrolling down, and get distracted, it disappears when it refreshes, and if after then I have to scroll up to click it.

Automatic would just annoy me as just because its on the screen doesnt mean I have read it.
Friday, January 19, 2007 7:14:30 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Make this configurable please.... I like to control when things are marked as read.... unread means I'm not done with an item not that I've read it.

Thanks!
-p
Wednesday, January 24, 2007 11:10:43 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Hah! One of the many reasons I don't like Google Reader and now its in the reader I do like and I can't even turn it off. At least ver 1.3 is still downloadable, I suppose.
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