Bloglines classic gets new Select & Search feature

I just noticed today that Bloglines Classic has a new search and select feature:

I assume it was added today as I've only noticed one tweet about it so far. Frnnr's Tweet sums up my feelings:

I've never liked the similar feature on the NY Times website. For those of us that select as we read to mark our place it's a distraction. Still, since I use the Beta interface it doesn't concern me much, although it's easy enough to block.

I suppose this is a good sign, in that it shows that Ask.com are still trying to monitize Bloglines by sending traffic to their search business. However I wish they'd found something that didn't have the potential to alienate their users.

Setting feeds to ignore updated items

I noticed the other night that setting a feed to ignore updated items was not remembered when I reloaded the page. However, there's an easy workaround:

1. Edit the Feed
2. Change Updated Items setting to "Ignore"
3. Click Update button
4. Edit the Feed
5. Change Updated Items setting to "Display as New"
6. Click Update button
   

It appears that the messages are being interpreted incorrectly by the server. So the first update, the server thinks you're setting it to Display as New, and the second update, it actually sets the feed to Ignore.