Google Reader Play – Just in time for iPad launch

I noticed a new option in my Google Reader this evening: Google Reader Play. Turns out the creative folks at Google announced this two weeks ago.

You can choose to use Google Reader Play on ALL your subscriptions, or just for a particular folder / category.

As you can see at the bottom of the image below, many of the latest “education” category blogs to which I subscribe don’t include images. Google Reader Play automatically includes (apparently) the first image used in a post as its identifying icon at the bottom of the screen. Here’s another reason to include photos in posts! I’ve tried to do that in MOST of my posts this term for our class “frequently asked questions blog” in Technology 4 Teachers.

My favorite tool for including Creative Commons licensed images in WordPress blog posts is the Photo Dropper plugin. I like how it provides the attribution links below each image. I can’t access it within Mars Edit when I write posts offline, but it’s readily accessible within a blank draft post within a browser. I actually use a deprecated WordPress blog I still maintain (Talking Science) for this purpose frequently.

photo credit: bunmun

My next-favorite image-finding tool (and one I use all the time for presentation images) is CompFight… speaking of which, I’ve got to get back to using that site! I’ve got a presentation to finalize before tomorrow’s flights to Florida! Palm Beach County here I come! 🙂

I’m sure my Southwest flights won’t have WiFi, and I don’t have an iPad yet… but I do have MobileRSS Pro on my iPhone, which is great for offline Google Reader subscription browsing.

I’m willing to wager Google Reader Play will be wonderful on a tablet. Charlie Sorrel (writing for Wired) agrees.

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google, ipad, tablet, reader, play, #ipad