PicLens: My new favorite tool for browsing web galleries

I'm of the opinion that most web-based photo galleries suck when it comes to usability & actually viewing photos.

After all, isn't seeing the photographs the most important part?

Seriously - the photo is about (well, supposed to be about) the image; not the EXIF, tags, groups, etc! When I'm trying to look at a gallery of photographs I want to see the images and have the interface get out of the way.

Enter PicLens. This is a piece of software that you install onto your computer that integrates with your favorite web browser (Firefox, Safari, and even MSIE). Now, any time you visit a photo gallery-style web site you can click the Play button that appears when you hover over an image and be launched into the PicLens full screen image browser!

It works with any site that provides a standard Media RSS feed, including: Flickr, SmugMug, Facebook, Lightroom Galleries and more. In full screen mode, you can drag the "image wall" in 3D space to view *all* thumbnails (no more pages of just 10-15 thumbnails!) and just double click to view larger & full-sized images. Very easy to get the hang of & far better than what you'll find on most sites.

Finally - you don't need to put up with the crappy interface & browse photos one by one!

Not quite PicLens, but SmugMug's galleries also rule...
I would be remiss if I did not mention that while most sites have a terrible interface for viewing (cough, Flickr, cough), SmugMug has recently implemented their Stretchy interface. This is a really great interface for pure browser-based web galleries, especially for folks with high-resolution wide screen monitors...

The interface automatically adjusts to be as efficient as possible; using different size/number of thumbnails and large images that go as big as they can. On top of that, clicking an image puts it in a lightbox view that goes as big as your browser window & all images are preloaded in the background for fastest viewing.

Right now, SmugMug really has the absolute best gallery style out there when it comes to browsing photographs. It's a great use of modern Web 2.0 features that provide enhanced usability without getting in your way.

Back to our regularly scheduled program...
Got a bit off track there with the SmugMug love fest; back to PicLens! Actually there's not much more to say about it... Have I mentioned that it rules & makes galleries on Flickr, Facebook and others actually usable? Go check it out!