Third party search enhancements are on the rise. One of the features I found interesting on the recent ask.com upgrade was the hover over search results and seeing the post. The problem was it only showed the most recent post and was fairly limited. When searching through Google you can get a fully browsable window preview by using a free browser plugin/extension called Cooliris.

There are Cooliris versions with different capabilities for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. Ironically the most crippled version of Cooliris is for the browser I currently use most, according to the Cooliris FAQ (emphasis mine):

With the Cooliris Previewer for Internet Explorer, you can preview most websites, including search engine results, job listings, blogs, webmail, discussion forums, and most other webpages and links. With our Firefox version, you can preview only Google search engine results, Google Images, Craigslist, and Ebay, a few others, but we are working hard to expand their capabilities. Cooliris cannot preview webpages hosted on a secure server (i.e., https://).

No Opera version.

Why is hovering over things so quirky?
I found that moving my mouse around the search results in Google was a hit and miss experience. I didn’t like how it popped up sometimes and was delayed on results I did want to see by a second or so. It’s like Cooliris had a mind (eye?) of its own even though I should have been controlling the hover. There is an orange-yellow checkbox you can click in the status bar to toggle on/off Cooliris.

No navigation on popup Cooliris window
Once the Cooliris browser window pops up you can reposition the window and navigate the site just like it opened in a new tab. The only thing is there are no forward, back or refresh browsing buttons. Would be useful to see those added.

Uninstalled
The Cooliris experience got better the longer I used it so the awkwardness of the popup experience will probably vary from user to user. Unfortunately, until it gets a few more features and works on more sites with the Firefox extension, it’s not something I’d use enough to warrant keeping it installed in Firefox. I only use IE on my Tablet regularly any more and not enough to use there. Even on my Apple I don’t use Safari that much any more, mostly Firefox. So Cooliris strikes out with me. Maybe it will work for those of you who use IE more regularly.

I’d be interested in taking another look when/if the Firefox extension has more site functionality and the Cooliris window gets more browser features. If someone from Cooliris is reading this, please feel free to let us know in the comments when a new version that adds more Firefox functionality is available. Grade: C-

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