Unusual browsers are nothing new. Whether it’s Opera, Cuil, or Melzoo, there’s always someone hoping to improve upon Google. This time, though, it’s something special: Cooliris lets you flick through the Web visually, as if you were a character in Minority Report.
Indeed, this is the first program I’ve ever used that gives you a reason to want a touch sensitive screen. On my Dell Latitude XT tablet, Cooliris is a joy: Type in a search term and then swipe your finger to the left or right to speed past an infinitely long grid of images, each representing a photo or video. When you see an image you like, tap it to bring it full screen, or tap a button to take you to its Web page. You don’t have to have a touch-compatible device to use Cooliris, though — you can mouse around just as easily.
Cooliris excels at image and video searches, and it’s especially cool to see videos playing within the grid. And Cooliris isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel with a new search algorithm; it is running its searches through your choice of engine, including Google, Yahoo, YouTube, and others. On the other hand, the site needs some work. Many times when I tried to click through, the actual Web page could not be found, implying that somewhere, the index is very stale, or something about the way Cooliris tries to request Web pages is broken. Nonetheless, Cooliris is a tiny download, it’s free, and it helps you visualize the Web in a fresh new way.
