CNET Editors' review
Cooliris blows up your Web-surfing experience into a larger-than-life graphical experience. It takes the images it finds on nearly any Web site, expands them to super-extra-large size, and then lets you surf through them in a classy scaling interface that we think we last saw in the Iron Man movie. Or maybe it was The Dark Knight.
Whatever the inspiration, there's no doubt that the cross-platform and cross-browser Cooliris puts the "graphic" back in "graphic user interface". Installing it places a button on the Toolbar. When you're on a Cooliris-enabled Web site, click the Cooliris button to activate the Cooliris interface. Your screen will go black, and all the images on the site will zoom past you as if on a roller-coaster. They stop soon after, and from there you can surf the site using the subtly-placed search bar at the top of your monitor. Click on an image to enlarge it. If it's a still image, it simply enlarges. If it's a video, it enlarges and starts playing.
Currently, the plug-in only supports a handful of the most popular graphics-intensive site, such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Picasa, Flickr, and a few others. A WordPress plug-in allows those who use that blogging system to create Cooliris functionality, and there's a Webmaster's guide on the Cooliris site for users who host their own sites. We also noticed occasional stability problems on Internet Explorer, but they were intermittent at best. Installing the add-on is worth it just for the sweeping, futuristic way that images stream by when you browse, even though there might not be much practical application at this point.
Publisher's Description
From Cooliris:
Cooliris transforms your browser into a visually stunning experience for searching, viewing, and sharing online photos and videos. Our 3D Wall lets you effortlessly search and zoom your way around thousands of images, videos, news feeds, sports feeds, and more. To share stuff with friends, just drag and drop.
More Popular Web Browsers downloads
- Google Chrome
311,282 downloads
- Mozilla Firefox
108,611 downloads
- Internet Explorer
24,334 downloads
- Internet Explorer
13,433 downloads
- Opera
13,336 downloads
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All versions:
3.8 starsout of 29 votes
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Current version:
3.5 starsout of 2 votes
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My rating:
Write review
Results 1-2 of 2
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"Great program"
Version: Cooliris for Internet Explorer 1.12.0.33689
Pros
love the cool preview feature
Cons
not many things wrong
Summary
worth the time to install
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"Attractive but Slow; Mainstream"
Version: Cooliris for Internet Explorer 1.12.0.33689
Pros
Attractive visual display
Fun to use
Great integration with CoolPreviewsCons
Slow
A bit cantankerous after install
Only compatible with the four major browsersSummary
Had a great deal of trouble getting it to work in IE; I had to reinstall it before it finally worked. It's attractive and fun but very slow to load. Works a lot better in Firefox than in IE. The display isn't as nice in IE as it is in Firefox. I've yet to try the versions for Google Chrome or Safari.
EDIT-Tried it in Chrome and it nearly killed my graphics card. My system meets all the minimum requirements and I've run it in IE and FF before without any problems. However, I seem to get a BSOD when I try to run it in Chrome.
I'm also terribly disappointed that there is no version for Opera. I can understand the compatibility issues, but I still wish there were a modified version for Opera and other browsers.
Updated on Jun 6, 2010
I recently ran it in IE and it gave me the blue screen of death, too. It has since been disabled and most likely will be purged unless I can figure out what went wrong. And on a side note, I don't believe there is a version for Safari for Windows, but I didn't know that when I wrote the original review.
Results 1-2 of 2
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