Some of you might have heard that Reddit has planned a small event tomorrow, June 18, in order to make some significant announcements about some new changes to Reddit.com. You can also see the announcement from time to time if you visit the site, which is down from time to time for the new changes.

TechCrunch, who is one of the 100 or so people who were invited to the announcement party, published a blog post today questioning if there was a meaning to the Penguin in the announcement picture. They are curious enought they have asked for comments on what people think the Penguin means and will be awarding a free TechCrunch t-shirt to the person who guesses correctly.

Alexis, co-founder of Reddit, responded and matched the contest offering the winner a special t-shirt they made just for the announcement party as well. Alexis has always been a good sport for contests and even offered a Reddit prize package for a contest that Weird Asia News is running.

If you think you know why there is a penguin in the announcement party image above, make sure you head over to the TechCrunch post and Alexis’s post, and put your entry in to win some free shirts.

Anyhow… I digress.

Ever since I got the invite for the event I have been trying to figure out what they would announce. Alexis and the whole crew at Reddit has been very tight lipped about the announcement, and refused to give any hints at all as to what the changes were going to be.

Reddit has been all about change and new features over the last few months having released a completely new UI and design, a new search system, YourWeek, and the random article box on the front page.

At first I thought it might be profiles, but since I already knew about those there was no reason for the secrecy now. In fact I have been involved and discussed so many of the features that I have been stumped as to what they would have that I was not aware of.

I had resigned to having to wait until tomorrow to find out what the announcement was until i cam accross something pretty interesting today.

Reddit has been running a little slow lately because of the testing and new features they have been adding. So on one page today, when I got a server down message, I immediately pressed “refresh”.

What I saw next was priceless and I immediately took a screenshot.

It would appear I got a one chance glimpse at what they are planning on announcing at the event tomorrow.

Reddit got Tagged!

It would appear from the screenshot above that Reddit has added the ability to tag your submissions with related keywords.

The tags are visible to the right of the category in the submission.

Additionally there is a tag cloud box added to the right side that allows you to click on a “tag” and see all submission that where tagged with the same keyword.

I tried to click on a tag but it took me to the infamous Reddit 404 page and I have been unable to see another page with tags on them.

Of course none of this explains the penguin in the announcement picture, so this is probably not the only feature they will be announcing.

Sorry Reddit, for blogging about your secret but you really shouldn’t throw a party for only the elite anyhow.

Edit: The Reddit blog has posted indicating that the tagging feature was just a joke and that it is not a part of the announcement for today.