Cooliris, which lets you browse media as a three-dimensional wall, announced two additions to its “Discover” feature today: Shopping channels and the ability to play Flash games.
You can use Cooliris to browse a number of websites, including YouTube and Facebook. Through Discover, the company also allows you to surf different channels of media pulled from around the web. The games channel is probably the flashier of the two new ones. Now you can actually play games in the Flash format without leaving Cooliris, which is the richest interaction that I’ve seen so far. It’s both cool and a little disconcerting to just click on a game in Cooliris’ wall and then immediately start playing it. The channel also includes videos of game reviews and previews. (It would be nice if there was a clearer indicator of which items are videos and which are actual games you can play.)
The shopping channels, however, may end up being more important to Cooliris as a business. When YouTube’s former head of monetization Shashi Seth became Cooliris’ chief revenue officer in June, he said the immersive browsing experience could be a good fit with various shopping sites. Users got a glimpse of that integration last month, with Cooliris’ holiday shopping channel, but now there’s a variety of channels that let you browse e-commerce sites like Amazon, iTunes, and others. The channel will presumably become one of Cooliris’ main revenue sources.
The Palo Alto, Calif. company raised $3 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. It also just won the “best design” award at the Crunchies.
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