Regarding complaints of LL not "eating its own dog food"

I've seen several posts recently expressing concern over the fact that LL utilizes web-based forums for customer feedback, and that websites such as slexchange.com are appearing that allow people to purchase items off-world, etc.

A number of these comments seem to take issue that people (including the Linden's) are resorting to the WWW for such interactions because the 3d environment provided by SL is inadequate.

I don't get the concern. LL has announced in recent Town halls that the texturing facilities in SL are getting revamped >1.6, with the ability to display web content. This potentially provides all the benefits of WWW-style interactions (hyperlinking, access to the huge amount of web-based content out there, easy composition of images/text in a simple markup language, etc) to the 3d collaborative environment provided by SL.

Regardless, lets face it, the WWW is better for some types of tasks (retrieval of information, for example). The fact that some SL-related activities are finding homes on the web doesn't in any way invalidate the concept of SL itself. The two (SL and the WWW) are complementary, not mutually exclusive.

Personally, I cannot wait for texturing facilities within SL that are capable of displaying web content. I would honestly expect people to remain in-world a great deal more than they already do, as this opens the door to all sorts of new and interesting social interactions (group-based web browsing, for example). It would also facilitate the creation of a whole new range of dynamic scripted objects (relying on webserver backends for processing and content display operations). We've seen a small taste of what is possible with existing objects making use of XML-RPC (or email) and dynamic display solutions such as XyText. The ability to render actual web content will take things a whole new step further.

Is it too early to start lobbying the Linden's to use a standards-based HTML rendering engine on the backend, such as Mozilla's Gecko? Say no to IE!

*bites his tongue*

Not while it's based on streaming technology.

If it were based on a reverse-compatible HTML extention, perhaps, and the problem would then be of how to designate locality of sites that already exist.

Mozilla could be integrated as a pop-up, though, as an alternative.

*bites his tongue hard*

I want to say more. I do. *coughs* Let's just say about 3 years ago I started documenting my own approach to how the Metaverse could be successfully created, and this is precisely the centerpiece.

*says nothing*

Eat dog food? What is this, some kind of post-apocalyptic wasteland, where your cheapest thrill is creasing the brainpan of some rabid mohawked goon with your makeshift shotgun/bludgeon?

Hmm, I'd better make plans to protect 'the juice'.

/abstains