what if Google buys out Linden Labs?

Not true, Google could turn it into a complete PG world full with MORE corperations.

The grass always "appears" greener on the other side. Possibly the tools that others possess
would do a better job executing certain functions in SL, however being bought out by one
of those companies I think would be highly undesirable.

If you look at the history of such buyouts rarely are the buyers as dedicated to the original
vision as the company being bought. Often it is because they want one or two of the functions the other owns to utilize to completely different ends.

There have been cases of buyouts where the buyers clearly had no idea what their long term goals were. And they then simply let the bought company rust until letting it go at a laterdate for a pittance.
Similar to a child of wealthy parents that wants something shiny then quickly loses interest.

Being that the management of a 3d virtual world of the open ended style that SL is, is so
new I doubt there is another company with more experience in handling this kind of challenge.

In that it is so resource and time intensive it is definitely a labor of love and I cannot think
of another currently existing company that would be better positioned to manage it.

In terms of the vision thing take a moment to look up the histories of some of the members of the board of directors they are some of the most powerful and innovative
individuals in the technology industry.

If there were another 3d virtual world platform doing a better job than SL then I would
complain about SL's problems much more however the fact that there is not causes me
to appreciate what we have for what it is.

Given the state of SL I'm presuming you mean 2.5 billion Lindens rather than USD?

ala googlefont.com

SL is a privately owned company, but there is some heavy financial backing of some guys who are pretty opiniated guys, probably don't all want to be in bed with Google, and are already horribly rich:

1. Mitch Kapor; founder of Lotus, co-founder of Electronic Frontier Foundation, Chair of Mozilla Corporation
2. Jeff Bezos; founder of Amazon, current fortune over 3.6 billion US$
3. Pierre Omidyar; founder of Ebay, current fortune over 8.8 billion US$

I would be surprised if Philip is able to just say: "Hey guys, SL is google's now", without them having a say too. And i'm not so sure Amazon, Ebay and Google are the best of friends...
(So NOW you know why land sales go over Ebay, and SL is using Amazon's caching server network for stuff...)


Also, Google is pretty much dedicated to it's own 'Google Earth' solution, and extending that to be a user content driven and community site. For one they bought the tools (Sketchup e.a.) for this. And are doing experiments with universities in extending it into a community driven environment (integrating it with the old Orkut e.a.)
So, Google IS interested in virtual worlds, but mostly driven on their own server based platform/architecture.

Also Philip Rosedale is pretty driven on the concept of Second Life. According to his own statements. This was already his goal BEFORE he went to work for Real, although he recognized 'time wasn't ready' for it. The main reason he started to work for Real was to extend his knowledge/base in streaming technology, to create a place like the Second Life Grid. He quit being CTO, and got back in his 'garage', the moment he saw the potential to realize it. So i don't see him selling it without keeping a lot of strategic control in this.

I am starting to worship Desmond.

My view is, so long as we are able to personally express ourselves (legally) and can still build in the sky/have private island then who cares.

I am maybe being a little gauche. However, SL always DID intend to be Net 2 did it not?

Sorry this isn't the blog, try >>>>>> That way

Wouldn't matter because they would hire the people to do it properly anyway. They wouldn't muck around like LL, there would be planning, notification etc, be like Blizzard treats it's customers.

Google bought YouTube for exposure... with around a million viewers per DAY, the advertising revenues must be well worth it and wouldn't surprise me if they don't make a profit within a year or maybe two. With SL... a couple of thousand per day?

SL will only become viable when they finally release the server code API's and let the 3D internet spread to a greater audience, using a pluggin for the common browsers, not the proprietory one currently used.

Maybe.. looking at the inference of putting voice, windlight and the Havoc4 engine in place, that time is drawing nearer? I can't imagine LL are doing all this just to pacify a few thousand users... combine that with the spread of servers planned into Europe and no doubt elesewhere over the world.... sort of paints its own picture if you stand far enough away to see it..... JMHO

Trying to think of a good sound commercial reason why Google would want to buy Linden Labs/Second Life.

Given that Google do one or two things very well indeed (search and email), and a few more things quite well (Google Earth and an MS Office substitute to name two) where is the commercial rational?

Second Life is full up with people who dip in and out for more or less free or maybe the odd purchase of a moderate amount of Lindens. Only a modest percentage of SL's population are premium users, and only a very small number of people spend more substantial sums. Quite a few people within SL are anti first life commercial to add to the picture

If Google wanted to buy a virtual community it makes more sense to me they would target higher net worth people, or at least paying subscribers. On that basis World of Warcraft would make more sense as it has more than 9 million paying subscribers around the world.

Just a personal view

Well there sure is no better way to say it Of course as users of a product (SL) it is good to provide feedback. But we should be glad to be part of a community which is rather unique in its own way

what if Google buys out Linden Labs? !
and say teams up with EA games' Sims2 and Simcity ?
- sounds crucial

then suppose one day somebody devises a
method of turning the sculpty into a hologram?
(freeware!) its the biz, fantastic, lets face it
its only the cost of the extra RAM and the PC fan
from the wind tunnel thats the real downside,

If Google bought SL, we'd be able to zoom in on people's faces in their houses.
If Google bought SL, search would work.
If Google bought SL, places would be most popular based on how many people put it in their picks.
If Google bought SL, downtime would be less than 1%.
If Google bought SL, we'd be able to choose rendering in html or view as is.
If Google bought SL, we'd be all about the ads, but cheaper play.
If Google bought SL, maybe my hair wouldn't be up my ass. Their maps are so good, they could probably tell that wasn't my head.
If Google bought SL, the world as we know would end, the Earth would be swallowed into itself to create the largest black hole in the universe.

You forget to add:
We would have a lot more rules.
We would be SWAMPED with ads... Coke Cola would come back.
There would be stringent CopyRight laws, many business's in SL would collapse and have to close overnight.
We would have been paying VAT years ago.
Ever tried getting hold of Google customer support?
Web 2.0 framework=exploits galore.
Search would be infested with millions of companies that are nothing to do with, or care about SL.

But that's progress eh?

Let's pause for a second. Even though L are microtransactions, there are scads of businesses in-world that will pay for advertising, and would be happy to pay per click. Although I'm sure rl companies would want in on it, let's not forget that backbone of SL has become home-grown small businesses.

They need to partner up with other companies and multi-cross over with other sites.

There are web sites now that pay for every hit you get for your, blog, news, video etc. If LL teamed up with one or more of them we could create our SL profiles there, show machinima, blogs, have a store for sellers, etc...and "we" would get paid for every hit on our pages. We could even start selling stuff a la ebay style and maybe people might even use IDV ...........for a business reason.........selling/making money!!! Would be interesting as well to see how many hits others are getting on their pages as well.

Well, IF Google bought out LL, I assume our Search feature would work a million times faster, other than that, probably nothing at all would change.

Angel.

Good news for us Mac users at long last, as Google have a presence on Apple's board...

Mentioned the ads.

Ever tried getting ahold of LL Customer Support?

Ever searched inside LL? We have car companies, RL brokerage wannabes, retailers, etc.

And hey, is it really fair that people use RL logos they have no permission to use make RL money? No other place in the world that would stand, and frankly, I'm surprised it's stood this long on SL. (But that's another Pandora's Box discussion)

SL should partner with other companies, multi-cross over SL with other sites, ex: something like a myspace-ebay type thing, but where "we" would get paid for hits on our pages. The more popular avatars would be getting the most hits, as well as blogs, machinima videos etc. A store also could be created there with SL products. Also an ebay type page as well (especially now with Christmas coming). SL flows into company A, flows into company B etc. I think SL needs to reinvent itself , (for me anyways) and there is lots that can be done.