2008 REDUX Another piece in the 2008 Redux series, originally referring back to a 2007 post, and what’s mind-boggling is the issue is still not fixed.
Yes, it’s great to be able to download my feed items and read it on the plane without Internet connection (since I am not flying Virgin). I even "starred" some entries I want to respond to.But why can’t I mark items "read"? It’s an "online only" action – that does not make sense. When I go back online, Google Reader will perform synchronization anyway; why could it not remember "read" status and sync it?
The above rant is half a year old. I typed it up and decided not to post it. Now I am finding myself offline for a few days again, and can’t believe Google still hasn’t fixed this shortcoming.
Why is it a big deal? If you have hundreds (thousands?) of items in your Reader, I seriously doubt you will use Expanded View and scroll through everything. I found the only way to stay productive with Reader is to use List View, scan titles (OK, a combination of titles and author), and when all done, click "Mark all as read". I don’t want to reprocess the same items again and again.
The error message says I can only do this once I am connected again. But it’s too late, by then my Reader list will be a mix of already seen and new items. In other words, I am scr***d.
What really baffles me though is that I haven’t found any references to this problem online. Am I the only one finding this a major productivity killer? 
C’mon Google, it’s been a year and a half – can we please have it fixed for the New Year?
