PicLens Rocks

I've been using PicLens for a little over a week now to explore various streams on Flickr. It works very well on sets, users' streams, pools, etc. PicLens is a plug-in (extension) that works with various browsers (Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer). It's not just for Flickr, PicLens also supports many other websites such as Picasa, Facebook, MySpace, etc. Though I've only used it with Flickr.

The above screen shot is of PicLens in full screen mode (on my 30" Apple Cinema Display) while browsing pbo31's "your favorites" set.

It has a fantastic kinetic motion based interface, similar to what you may know from the iPhone. You just drag your mouse across the screen (while holding the primary button) and the photos fly across your screen. Click on one and it gets bigger, double click on one and it goes full screen. What I find particularly fascinating about this is that PicLens will allow me to view photos in full screen mode from people that have not allowed their full resolution photos to be accessible through the standard Flickr interface! It has really revolutionized how I explore streams on Flickr.

I initially came across PicLens in a comment by Greg Furry posted on Thomas Hawk's article about FlickrLeech 2. While I have used FlickrLeech in the past, its user interface pales in comparison to PicLens, IMO. My only slight gripe about PicLens is that I wish it were easier to escape out of it to leave a comment on someone's photo. You can do that, but you can't get back in exactly where you left off, which is annoying. I also haven't investigated to see if clicking on a photo in PicLens counts as a "view" on that photo page, it would be a shame if it did not.