We’ve been fans of Cooliris, the browser plugin formerly known as PicLens, for quitesome time. This plugin transforms a normal 2D web page into an immersive 3D experience for viewing photos and videos. It allows you to fly through all the media on a page, zoom in and out, watch the videos full screen or view the pictures in a slideshow format, and so much more. However, the one problem with Cooliris was the limited number of sites that supported it. As of now, that’s about change.
According to a recent article in VentureBeat, the company has just introduced a tool that will allow anyone to add the Cooliris technology to their web site without needing to know any sort of programming at all.
Now, in addition to the “full featured” option on Cooliris’s Developer page, there’s a new “Quick and Simple” option that promises to work on most sites. All you have to do is enter in your URL, and, after some tests are performed, you’re provided with an XML file and some embed code to add to your site. The entire process is said to take about ten minutes, but in our testing, it was even quicker than that.
Another new feature in Cooliris is a new sharing option which lets you drag and drop media from the Wall to share with friends. Right now, this feature supports email only, but in the future, sharing via Facebook may become available.
If you’re looking for content to view with Cooliris, you can visit Getty Images, the world’s largest source of stock photos, which recently became Cooliris-enabled. You can also just launch the plugin and use its “Discovery” option, which loads a list of channels for you to choose from, including one that currently offers photos and videos from the Olympic Games in Beijing.
