Reddit added a new feature on July 3rd, 2008, which, unfortunately, almost no one noticed.

Since Reddit has always been cautious about changes and how their users will react to them, they launched “image thumbnails” as an opt-in feature to see how people would like it.

It is set to become the default option in the near future, at which point more people will discover it.

To their behalf, they did blog about it, but probably could have chosen a better time than the day before one of our biggest vacation and party holidays in the US.

Luckily, the conversation about images came up when visiting the Reddit office yesterday to discuss some possible new features using the now open source Reddit code. I was shocked and quite pleased at the new features added to the site.

If you go into your preferences section, you will see a new option to add media as seen below:

Of course if you happen to like the compressed view of Reddit, then you cannot enjoy the “image thumbnails” feature.

Once turned on you can head to any section on Reddit and see that the submissions now have thumbnails between the voting arrows and the title of the submission.

“This is good for reddits that are predominantly links to media: pics and videos, for example.”

Another great feature, that was turned on for everyone, is the ability to watch video submissions without leaving Reddit.com. Simply click on the “watch” link located under any video submission.

Immediately a full display of the video will expand below the submission, allowing you to watch the video in full.

Clicking the “close” link under the submission will close the video and take you back to your normal view.

These are both really great additions to the site and will add even more visual appeal to Reddit.com.