I always thought the Column view was cool, especially because of the preview pane that comes up when you click on image or movie files. I was bummed that this preview was only available in column view, as I thought it would be useful in list and icon views as well.
Well, it turns out that this feature already exists!
When viewing a folder in icon or list view, click on a file and get info (Cmd-I). This brings up the info window. Select Preview from the popup menu in the info window, and volia! Click on different files to see a preview of each one. Neato.
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20010601174128779