  We introduce a fully-coherent method for searching for gravitational wave
signals generated by the merger of black hole and/or neutron star binaries.
This extends the coherent analysis previously developed and used for targeted
gravitational wave searches to an all-sky, all-time search. We apply the search
to one month of data taken during the fifth science run of the LIGO detectors.
We demonstrate an increase in sensitivity of 25% over the coincidence search,
which is commensurate with expectations. Finally, we discuss prospects for
implementing and running a coherent search for gravitational wave signals from
binary coalescence in the advanced gravitational wave detector data.
