Ok well I like this part

link on the SL homepage to xstreet..is that new? I like it!

It's okay. Shows more poor decision making in the design process, but it's okay.

Well, LL bought out xstreet, so of course they are hyping it.

Taking a chapter from OnRez, which they also bought, I fully expect a near-future client change so there will be a "Shop XStreet!" link on the menu bar of your SL client, to take you right to their shopping site.

Oh god, I hope not! Not everyone uses XStreet, I think that site sucks eggs!

It's better composed than some of the images they've had on there. I'm mostly amused, by it, however.

I like XStreet, I just hate their search feature. I can't, for the life of me, figure out why any search would be designed so that if you put in multiple words, like folding chair, it brings up anything that has either the word folding or chair in it. I don't want a folding door. I don't want a plush chair. Neither would show up if it searched both words. Go figure, putting the AND command before the words doesn't help either.

when searching multiple words put them in quotes like this

"folding chair"
this will force it to only look for those words together

(or it should anyway)

where do you see the link?
I just went to the home page (main page) and do not see a link to xstreet

I also logged out to check the new main page and not there either

nm I had to reload the page to force it to not use the cached page

it is where they used to have the random pics, which most often was the girls at the shoe store

Yep. Right there. Still random pix but all slex related.

I have to force a reload of the page to see different pics, just normal refresh doesn't work, it seems the pics are saved in the cache (at least for me)

Could you perhaps explain why you think this?

Yeah, but then the two words have to be right next to eachother. So if I am looking for Christmas Tree and something is called a Cristmas lighted tree, it wont show up.

very true eric

yes searches can be a pain in the arse

+folding +chair

Will bring up ONLY listings that contain both the words "folding" and "chair".

ooh, thanks Winter, I never knew that!

Did anyone see the SL homepage that was all flash based and had all these pictures scrolling across a black background? I saw it a few days ago but it seems to be back to normal now.

If you logout of the main site and then put secondlife.com into your address bar and press enter you should see the flash page for non-sl-users.


--- addendum -----


Heh, well I said that, but I see a black background and some links at top but no grid of pictures.

Not much of a site at all.

I don't like the Xtreet ad on the front page at all - not one little bit.

It's not there because LL likes what Xstreet does, or it would have been there some time ago. And it's not there because LL wants to point users to a very good system of shopping, or it would have been there some time ago. The ONLY reason it's there is so that LL can rake a cut out of shopping. It has nothing whatsoever to do with pointing users at a good place to shop; it has *everything* to do with LL making new/more money from SL businesses. It will increase the sales done via Xstreet, of course, and stores will earn less while LL rakes in more.

"It's you world, your imagination" and now we'll rake in a cut of your imagination, just because we can.

Coke doesn't introduce a new soft drink because they just want to be nice.

Why do you expect LL to be altruistically motivated? LL is a business! They are trying to make money! They need to make money to support and expand the product!

You want altruism? Join the Girl Scouts!

JFC!!!

I think they've completely missed the mark. The copy should read:



With a picture of a three-way.

Just saying.

LL isn't Coca Cola and LL have never before taken a cut from people's sales - like a sales tax. Coca Cola sell products; LL doesn't sell inworld prducts. This is a new departure for them, and one that I dislike enormously. What will it be next? To keep everything on an even footing, will they introduce a 'sales tax' on wholly inworld transactions, with the excuse that transactions use resources and, to keep pace (equipment) with the burgeoning sales, we have to levy a sales tax?

Also, by advertising Xstreet, there is a sense in which LL is going into competition with stores, by becoming a middleman for shoppers to buy from.

I often use IE when I just want to check a page from a non-logged in viewpoint - then I don't have to actually log my Firefox session out.

When I go to the main secondlife page via IE, I do see all those individual pictures and you can scroll them side to side:

I kind of like the link from the homepage too, though I don't think it will direct a significantly larger number of shoppers to Slex than already used it. I fully expect them to eventually add a new "shop" tab to the inworld viewer though, and am keenly interested in how that will be implemented and how it might change shopping patterns inworld.

Phil I understand your point completely, and I do agree to an extent. If you have stuff up on XStreet, then someone is going to get a cut, and as long as the cut is the same, I don't particulary care who gets it. But your post has made me think.

While direct linking to Xstreet might be helpful for those who have product listed there (which remains to be seen) I suddenly realize that there are a LOT of in-world vendors who don't use it. And if they do add a 'shop tab' as Nimue suggested, I can imagine a lot of people going directly to that tab instead of search...even if they are going there to find what they want and then go buy it in world, it would effectively be cutting out anyone who does NOT use Xstreet. That would NOT be a good thing.

That's what caused my opinion - I don't have anything on Xstreet, so I'm looking at it form a wholly inworld trader's point of view.

If the tab is added, as Nimue suggests it might be, then it will be even worse. More people will be guided to where LL gets a cut, and more and more traders will feel that they have to be on Xstreet, giving LL even more rake offs.