We don’t talk about Cooliris nearly often enough. The Palo Alto-based company has done a fantastic job in pushing the limits of interactive photo and video browsing with its 3D Wall, a plug-in for Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox that enables users to enjoy viewing their photos on Flickr or Facebook and their YouTube videos in a rich setting that drips of coolness. If you haven’t tried it and you’re using one of the supported browsers, give it a shot or check out the Flash-driven Cooliris Embed Wall below.
Today, the VC-backed startup is introducing what was always in the cards for them if they were ever going to make money off its innovative product: a Publisher Network that integrates non-intrusive interactive advertising units into embeddable 3D walls.
You can already see the new advertising solution in action thanks to a partnership Cooliris has sealed with marketing agency OMD and one of its historical big clients, Infiniti. Basically, Cooliris will be integrating custom blocks for the Infiniti G Convertible ad campaign into streaming photo walls throughout its freshly launched publisher network, more specifically on popular websites like Yahoo! News, Golf.com, the New York Magazine and Style.com. See it in full effect at this section of the New York Magazine website or just have a look at the screenshot below to get an idea of where the company is going with this.
Personally, I’m a big fan of Cooliris and the way they are going about trying to generate revenue from its product. In the past, we’ve talked about other innovative advertising strategies we actually appreciate, and I think this is what should be drawing the attention of The Online Publishers Association. Maybe that way they will finally realize that just making display ads units bigger isn’t going to solve any of their members’ problems without annoying the heck out of their respective website visitors.
Cooliris on Yahoo! News Photos
Embedded 3D Wall (doesn’t work so well in Firefox for some reason)
Looks like they are really working on some interesting advertising models. It’s good to see new ideas are being implemented
- Darren at AdExcel dot Com
p/s – we are working on Social Ads
I bet you are.
I wonder what awesome comment Darren from Ad excel will leave?
Umm, you do realize that your gravatar is the same on your @AdExcel comment right?
I think he realizes, Asad, he’s just trying to be creatively obnoxious.
That’s someone else trying to be funny. Not me. How do we get rid of these impersonators?
My comments are incredible. We need to get rid of impersonators. Every single story I write a comment saying nothing of importance, then I add a smiley face. That imposter did not use my trademark smiley face.
Now he’s using my website/twitter links as well .. sigh*
Just send a report to the admin for the abuse. They can track its IP and file for investigation, inform the appropriate authorities if possible. Impersonation is a serious issue and also a crime. You can find more details here http://www.ther...ons_validation/
Report to TechCrunch for this matter. They can track the IP and notify the authorities. Impersonation is a serious crime and here are the details – http://www.hunt...nation-a-crime/
My name is really Darren. Darren Josephs. But I can’t speak for the other Darren. And you have no proof if that Darren is impersonating you because his name might actually be Darren and HE’S NOT FROM AD EXCEL.
Maybe if you stop spamming your glorious Ad Excel website on TechCrunch, you won’t have to worry about getting into this situation in the first place.
If you really want to increase traffic to Ad Excel, BUY AN AD ON TECHCRUNCH, DON’T SPAM IN THE COMMENTS.
I think the copycat actually used the same name as darren (the original), his website, and his link exactly the same. This can be a serious offence and I don’t think people like that. Even if you don’t like somebody and if you do that, I think it’s wrong.
There is proof. The fake Darren is using the same name and links, credentials, etc as the real Darren. This is impersonating and is wrong.
I don’t get this. All the fuss for a short comment, which i Don’t see it’s pre written in a spam format, and yet i Don’t see any spammy links. We are getting hyper sensitive here.
The impersonation issue is more serious I think. I will be worried if everybody does that.
He beat me too the punch. Darren is awesome.
Webkit based browsers have already implemented enough of the CSS spec to do very similar image walls without Flash at all.
http://www.sati...-stack-is-here/
Nice and all, but most people have Flash installed anyway.
Are you a Cooliris investor or something?
Because I say most people have Flash installed, I’m suddenly a Cooliris investor? I think your thinking needs work.
What are you talking about, his logic is sound!
Nobody has Flash installed, this is a sham. A sham I say! DOWN WITH COOLIRI-no. Just no.
Flash has like 96% cover rate on all computers that have been on the Internet. Cooliris freaking owns.
I also take full credit for inventing Cooliris, along with Aviary, Mint, and drop.io.
Hooray!
Dan’s point is that this technique can be done using native HTML5, which means anyone will be able to do it very soon.
That’s bad news if you just invested in that company, or if you’re the company trying to build a business model on it.
I think you’re response was interpreted as a brush-off of the business implications, not the tech.
You’ll understand eventually, Robin. Keep on tweeting about how amazingly intelligent you are.
Yes, but this stuff will work much better outside of flash once it becomes mainstream…
Yes, but most people don’t have Flash 9+ installed, which this application needs. Corp policy probably doesn’t allow updating your own desktop software, so Flash installed on a machine doesn’t necessarily mean people can view this.
I like the solution a lot. I’ve embedded the demo on my site, but from experience and analysis, we’re talking about a limited audience inside the business world.
actually you’re mistaken. Most people actually have flash 10 and the bulk of the remaining have flash 9.
Yes but wait till Something Better comes along and totally destroys the Flash market.
Yes, I have named Microsoft’s Silverlie.
The greatest thing since ActiveX and IE6.
Its only a matter of time until Bing and Silverlie take over the woooooooooooorld!!!!
Having the app built in Flash isn’t that big of a deal… doesn’t YouTube use Flash? Last I heard, their traffic stats are doing quite well.
Great article i really enjoyed it!
Wheat.. really that is the image you want showing when someone clicks on your name… WHEAT.. what the heck does wheat say about anything unless you are a farmer..
I’ve been using the Cooliris Firefox pug-in for ages! It’s a great little service. “Advertising We Actually Like”, I hope so!
I use Google’s Adsense. My complaint has always been that the ads are innapropriate and of objects and services nobody is interested in. Also the image ads are too few. It also gives little control to the site publisher. I definitly with another service comes around, maybe cooliris that brings atractive ads. But will these smaller services make money for the site publisher? So far no one except Adsense has managed that for me.
Why is this in 3D and not 2D? As far as I can see the 3D effect serves no real purpose.
The company should think about how they can use their technology (embeddable 3D UGC is definitely a cool technology to have) for some purpose other than making a 2D wall of photos skew slightly in and out of the Z-axis.
Apologies if they already are – I’m basing this comment on seeing the embed above.
Photos are 2D and therefore should be viewed in 2D. I’ve played with Cooliris and feel they have a 5-minute wow factor and no utility value in the long run.
Case-in-point: Apple’s Coverflow feature. How many of you actually use it on a regular basis to find your albums?
Furthermore, the 3D view is something any decent 3D coder can write in a day. Just ask those writing game engines in the games industry.
You nailed it right there.
It’s all about the ads when you think about it..LOL
Did someone say choo choo trains, or New York City subway? LOL!
Well, let me be the first to announce the backlash has begun.. I’ve stopped updating Cooliris in my Firefox because they update it all the time and it is such a big download it interrupts my startup for minutes. And what do you get with all those updates? A lot of noise. What was a clean and snazzy product is now cluttered with all sorts of bloated UI crap and other “monetizing” nonsense. There’s no reason to move forward with them. Their customers are their investors and not me.
I think I uninstalled the one I was running on XP through VIrtualbox when the extension was weighing in at 4.9MB.
Nothing an extension can do is worth a 5meg extension.
I do give them credit for making it possible to view your own HD but it doesnt replace the Gwenview I use on Mandriva Linux/KDE4 or the Picassa3 I use on the XP.
“rich setting that drips of coolness”
Sounds like you be gettin’ a little emotionally involved there Robin.
btw, is you a girlie?
Emotional involvement ftw. And no, I’m not female, but thank you for asking.
This is clearly the coolest add on to Fire Fox that i Have. I recommend everyone downloads it!
Cooliris was annoying and unnecessary so I uninstalled it after a few days of playing with it.
actually you’re mistaken. Most people actually have flash 10 and the bulk of the remaining have flash 9.
Oops, should have added great post! Waiting on the next post!
Darren at AdExcel dot Com
Let me great this straight – advertisements are now the new social medium in your business model!?
“He guys, let’s comment on that new AD!”
Is that right?
This is ridiculous.
hmm, yes, you can great this straight.
Can I great a glass of water please?
I need to great me some AdExcel. Hurray.
I’ve used Cooliris and it’s pretty slick, but the it almost always interferes with the UI of the page you’re viewing. You almost always can’t read comments on media sharing sites and you loose your place in pages all the time, especially Facebook and things like that. It’s a cool plugin if you choose to trade a lot of time for a bit of “coolness”. I’ll stick with Greasemonkey scripts.
‘It’s a cool plugin if you choose to trade a lot of time for a bit of “coolness”.’
like every Apple user on the planet.
Cooliris will sell for $120m+