These thumbnail's next to the search results are becoming popular. There were several smaller engines that used them in the past. Recently Ask Jeeves launched its Binoculars(TM) Site Preview Tool and now AOL has launched a view that allows its French Netscape users see a snap shot of the screen. This view is much like how Alexa's screen capture works. Take a look at Netscape France's results for SearchEngineWatch. You will notice that there are three little boxes on the far right of the thing blue bar. Those are the different views you can choose from. I personally like the option to select one of these three views.
Forum coverage at Search Engine Watch.