ReadWriteWeb

Cooliris, the browser extension that launches a 3D visual search interface to the web, has just updated their application with what at first seems to be just a minor upgrade. But don't be fooled, this small change to the Cooliris add-on is actually going to have a major impact on the product's usability.

So, what's different? As of today, Cooliris will no longer launch into a full-screen 3D browser when activated. Instead, Cooliris will launch into a separate browser tab. This change was heavily requested by Cooliris users, a multi-tasking bunch of folks who wanted to be able to quickly switch back and forth between Cooliris's 3D web and all the other open tabs and applications running on their computers.

The Cooliris browser add-on was just updated to a new version that now offers something many users have been clamoring for: Linux support. With the 1.10 release of this 3D photo and video viewing plugin, Linux users running Firefox 3 can now also take advantage of this visually impressive software program for surfing through rich media on the web. In addition, the new version of Cooliris includes improvements to their Facebook support, the ability to browse local files on your computer, and the addition of metadata to the content you're viewing.

What's going on with the 3D web? At one point, it was being heralded as the next big thing. Is that still the case? Take for example, the virtual world Second Life. Once a booming place where every business had set up their online presence, the formerly happening hotspot is now gloomy and dead. As one-time Second Life reporter Eric Krangel said, hanging out in Second Life is "about as fun as watching paint dry."

Cooliris (formerly PicLens) makers of a browser plugin which transforms the web into an immersive 3D experience, has just released their first application for the iPhone. The new Cooliris App brings 3D web surfing to the iPhone. Like their plugin, the iPhone app lets you browse using their unique "wall of content," a 3D wall that you can flick through using finger swipes and can touch to zoom in and out. This app lets you search Google, Flickr, Yahoo, SmugMug, and DeviantArt. Also like their browser plugin, the Cooliris iPhone App delivers relevant news and articles from across the web via a "Discover" feature which presents iPhone-optimized content organized in categories like News, Sports, Tech, and more.

We've been fans of Cooliris, the browser plugin formerly known as PicLens, for quite some 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.

In a bid to push open source 3D modeling software Blender as a suitable environment for professional 3D animation, Blender has released the results of its second open movie project. The 10-minute animated short, Big Buck Bunny, was released free on the Internet last Friday. The movie is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license -- including all production files and the contents of the film's official web site. The project, which had been codenamed "Peach," follows up the successful "Orange" project which released the Elephant's Dream short in May 2006.

This morning Robert Scoble unveiled video of Microsoft's World Wide Telescope project in action. It's definitely worth watching (even if Scoble's camera work is as amateurish as ever), because though it didn't bring me to tears, it does look like a pretty amazing piece of software. The purpose of the software is to provide access to the world's collected astronomical data and put it in the hands of regular people. Similarly, the Visible Body, which launches tomorrow, aims to do the same for human physiology.

Earthmine, the Best Technology Innovation/Achievement category winner at tonight's Crunchies, is a company that might seem uninteresting at first glance. When I first saw earthmine I assumed that it was just a Google Maps Streetview knock-off. I was wrong.

This startup is doing something far more interesting than that. While Google Maps and related consumer products have whetted the public's appetite for visualization of specific places on a map, earthmine is making those places machine readable.