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Google just launched a new Google Labs product for Google Reader: Google Reader Play. Reader Play is a new, highly visual way to browse your Google Reader subscriptions that is somewhat reminiscent of Google's Fast Flip. It replaces the busy Google Reader interface with an interface that focuses on a single story. Whenever a post includes videos or images, Play with highlight these and give you the option to read more of the text as well. This new interface allows you to browse through the feeds you already subscribe to, but Google Reader Play also emphasizes Google Reader's ability to recommend items from around the web for you based on your preferences.

Yesterday, Google launched Fast Flip - a Google Labs product that wants to give users a new way to browse newspaper sites and blogs on their desktops and mobile devices. The big business news here is that Google will share ad revenue from this product with the publishers. The relationship between Google and the newspaper industry has always been somewhat tumultuous, so this revenue-sharing model can be seen as Google extending an olive branch to content producers. The problem, though, is that Google Fast Flip simply isn't a very good product and that it feels more like a step backwards than the future of news.