Hot off the press this week, CoolPreviews v3.0 for Firefox introduces a ton of new features for browsing faster. What’s really hip is its interactive display of the Cooliris Wall within the preview window.

To understand how it all works, let’s first do a quick recap on CoolPreviews. With over 9 million downloads to date, this sweet little addon is all about browsing faster. You can preview links on just about any website, including Google, all without leaving your current page or tab. Simply mouseover a link, and a separate preview window appears to show the content.

Pretty slick, eh? No surprise CoolPreviews is a five-star favorite on the Mozilla Addons site.

Now, about that Cooliris Wall mashup . . .

Say, you want to search the Web to see everything about Avatar, the new James Cameron movie. You query “avatar” in Google web search as usual. You then use CoolPreviews to browse the official Avatar movie site, without even leaving your Google results page. To see what Wikipedia says about Avatar, you just mouseover that link, too.

But what if you want to see a lot more related images and videos of Avatar? No problem. Simply click the “Cooliris” button in the built-in search bar of CoolPreviews. Literally thousands of multimedia results will then display on the infinite Cooliris Wall within the CoolPreviews frame. (Press F8 on PC or Alt+Esc on Mac to hide the Cooliris chrome for a bigger picture.)

So things go smoothly, you’ll need the latest versions of both Firefox addons: That’s version 3.0+ for CoolPreviews and 1.11.6+ for Cooliris.

With Cooliris integrated, CoolPreviews is the fastest and ultimate way to browse.

As you may have noticed, PicLens has got a brand new name: Cooliris. It’s become our self-titled album. Meanwhile, our other add-on, Cooliris Previews, has been shortened to CoolPreviews. Since you may be curious why, we thought we’d give you the scoop.

Why the name change?

The short answer is that “PicLens” simply evolved beyond its original name and vision. As a company, we’re going through an exciting period of growth and development, and as our flagship product, “PicLens” has been at the forefront of that growth. With this expanding scope, it became clear that a name change was in order.

You see, “PicLens” has always connoted a very specific application: something that allows you to closely view pictures. As many of our long-time followers may reminisce, our very first beta was released in October 2006 (wow, almost two years ago!) and offered only a full-screen slideshow mode for viewing pictures one at a time.

But PicLens has grown, as has our company and vision. With the introduction of our “3D Wall” interface this past January came not only the ability to view but also navigate 1000s of images instantly along an endlessly expansive, scrollable wall. Add search functionality and video support, the product had evolved beyond being a just picture viewer into to a “new immersive approach to Web navigation,” as the New York Times aptly puts it.

Today, the product is beginning to help people discover more from the Web. You now have, for example, the ability to channel-surf the Internet’s hottest news and media through our Discover feature. More recently we introduced Sharing, so you can share everything you find on the 3D Wall with your friends.

In the months to come, you will witness a number of product innovations that surpass your wildest imaginations.

Why Cooliris?

After doing some name ideation and weighing our options, it came to make sense for the product brand to adopt our company name “Cooliris.”

Cooliris captures the essence of the user experience we envision: a way to experience the Internet and content in a new, more vibrant manner, one that is truly interactive, connected, and immersive.

What’s in a name? “Cooliris” is rich in its implications. The “cool”, exhilarating atmosphere evoked by a night ride in the open air on your bike or convertible, or by diving into the ocean in the early morning hours, is the same kind of rush that users can imagine while flying through 1000s of photos, videos, and web content on the infinite 3D Wall. Similarly, “iris” brings with it a wealth of associations: the colored part of the eye that controls vision aperture, the flower that blooms in early spring, and, in Greek mythology, the divine messenger personifying rainbows, the path between earth and the heavens above.

What’s Next?

The word’s spreading amongst all of our groups on Facebook, Flickr, and MySpace, and amongst our many supporters. We now humbly to turn to you, our loyal users, to help us further share the new name and pass on the good word for Cooliris.

Our team is really excited about our the new additions we’re building for Cooliris, and we can’t wait to a whole new Cooliris experience with you in the coming months.