A couple of issues ago I wrote about image browsing using the browser add-on called PicLens (which I mistakenly wrote as "Piclens"). I commented that the product needs "additional features such as being able to build collections, post images to blogs, and annotate images."

On more or less the day that the newsletter was published, PicLens the developer announced that the product name was to be changed to be the same as the company name.

More importantly, the company announced that they have had added a sharing feature so that you can e-mail links to images and videos directly from Cooliris and the recipient doesn’t need to be a Cooliris user. They also revealed Cooliris for Developers – a section of their Web site that explains how to modify Web content and blogs so that they work with Cooliris. While you can use their Media RSS method to enable Cooliris support the company also offers service where you give the URLs of your image content and Cooliris indexes them for you.

Nice idea but I think this service needs a little more work or perhaps better instructions – I tried to set up a gallery on my Web site for Cooliris by pointing the service at the gallery’s thumbnail subdirectory, but it refused to recognize any images. More when I find out what the problem is.

While I’m on the topic of things graphical check out the Mercedes AMG 360 Site. When you get to the “meat” of the site - the 360 degree panoramic movies - you’ll be impressed … at least you will be if you have a fast connection and a fast computer.

The site is very ambitious offering several of these 360 degree movies, but to get to them requires loading a Flash movie, then another … way too many tediously long steps for a pleasant viewing experience. I was on a pretty fast Mac and even after I had loaded the movies when I tried to change the viewpoint (you click and drag in the movie display to change the viewpoint as the movie plays) the playback wasn’t responsive enough to impress me.

This is definitely high-concept advertising, but you have to wonder how Mercedes’ Web-wonks conceive of their audience. If you are well-heeled enough for vehicles bearing the AMG logo and you’re interested you’ll be going to a show room, while if you’re just dreaming all the site will do is frustrate you assuming you have a fast enough connection, which given the fact you can’t afford a Mercedes AMG car is unlikely.

Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, columnist and blogger.