Google thinking of Building it's Own Second Life

Maybe, but that could be a boon to up and coming artists who can't get a break in SL.

We'll just have to see.

It's fun to speculate, but consider, AOL was in a great position to be 'the' gateway to the entire internet... and, yeah.

I remember people hearing of the AOL/Time Warner thing, and thinking: ZOMG unstoppable! Well, sort of.

So Google might dabble in virtual worlds. They dabble in a lot of things. It's to be expected. But it's not their core business. Google could come in and try to dominate anything, just by virtue of being big. Search. Email. Images. Video. Books. Hell, they could dominate the rat extermination industry or the rent-a-clown industry if they felt like it.

But would they?

Expect 'smart' from Google. It's great to totally pwn things, but consider what Google does, and how it does it.

Did Google launch a bunch of satellites and airplanes to map the world? No. But they did aggregate the data. That's what they do - add access and polish to stuff that was already out there. They *do* pwn really obvious, well-understood, used-by-100's-of-millions things like email or chat or calendars, but virtual worlds aren't that, not yet.

So I would expect this: Google will do what it does best, and rather than invent the wheel and force their wheel into global prominence, they will leverage someone else's wheel instead.

If a big enough wheel comes along, they will index the wheel, sell advertising with the search, make some handy tools for it, and integrate access into their already-there google accounts.

Same profits, zero start-up expense, risk of blowing it: zero. Compared to a 100+ million dollar bid for skyblue dreams.

Once there are as many people using virtual worlds as email and chat, then yeah, expect a good but conceptually unadventurous clone from Google, like they did with email and chat. But Linden Research they are not, and never will be. Google lacks the cojones.

Just my take on it, from watching what they do.

I hope they have easy-to-use inworld building tools, because I've tried again and again to learn stuff like 3D Studio Max, Blender, etc, to no avail.

I don't just think, I know that Google could do a superior, kickass job making a 'virtual space' similar to SL.

As long as they let their citizens do the content creation portion...they will be golden. Google has the top minds working for them...tons of money...and the support from nearly every single web-based resource.

If they can improve Google Sketchup a little bit, and make that the in-world builder for Google Life (that's copyrighted by me), then designers could have more freedom to create what they see in their 'minds eye.'

I think Google is just the company to do this...I wish them well.

I think I'm in love...

I'm in the Google buys stuff camp. I can easily see their strategy being to build their own technology from the ground up (to get it right), and then buying SL out to get the *content*. Import it into their environment. Import the user base.

Perhaps that's just wishful thinking, since I know have spent a fair bit of coin (by my standards) on SL based virtual goods.

Love.

I'm skeptical that Google would have easy to use building tools or cheap upload prices like LL does. Like someone said earlier in the thread, Google doesn't actually make much, they just make it easier to find. Something like building tools seems a bit too abstract for them.

A Google SL would be pretty generic and run into the same issues SL does, except probably not the scalability issues. The other issue would, in fact, be added RL advertisement...probably like constant pop-ups and banners on the viewer.

Their best bet is to just buy another company with all the right parts already in place and provide them the infrastructure to expand. I still would like to think they could buy LL...but I worry about the probable loss of open source-ness we would see.

Big businesses don't seem interested in sharing and letting the consumer make the calls...after all, their job is to produce and our's is to consume!

Them buying Second Life wouldnt be out of the question .. Look at You Tube.

and that was after they had already come out with Google video.

Holy crap he lives! In Google's hands it probably would be a better operating program, but it would be so full of commercialized mass consumption garbage that peole would yearn for SL and all it's bugs.

There's a storm coming ...

A Bird's Eye View - The Metaverse Messenger, 09-06-2005
The Power Of An Idea: Ruminations On The Metaverse

Every great result begins with one thing: a concept. An idea. Without the ability to imagine that which no one else has imagined before, no new thing would ever come about. The difference between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom (no offense to furries) is the incredibly powerful computer that each of us possesses. No, not the one on your desk that you’re reading this column on — the three pound mass of grey neural cells that’s inside your skull. More powerful than the greatest supercomputer, it not only controls both the voluntary and involuntary functions of your body as well as providing an interface to the outside world through the five (some claim six) senses, but it has more storage capacity and faster data access capability than any hard drive in existence.

Stephen King once wrote that “the mind is a monkey,” and indeed it is, able to leap mind boggling distances from topic to topic, sometimes at the most unexpected times and in response to the most unlikely stimuli.

It is this biological supercomputer that has elevated human society above its primitive beginnings, through the ability to conceive concepts both abstract and concrete. Inventions ranging from the wheel to the microprocessor came about from the ability of the human mind to wrap itself around an idea and bring it to fruition.

Look at far we have advanced in just twenty-five years in one particular area that is important to all SLers: the field of computers. IBM’s first PC reached the market in 1984 and utilized a microprocessor that ran at 4.7 megahertz — that’s 4.7 million instructions per second. Pretty impressive for 1980’s technology. It had no hard disk, only a 5¼” floppy drive. From those bad old days of running BASIC routines, VisiCalc, and WordStar, flash forward to the PC’s twenty-first birthday — 2005. Today we have access to PCs with CPUs that run at nearly 4 gigahertz — that’s four BILLION instructions per second, a thousand times faster than the original PCs. From the old amber, green, or B&W monochrome monitors, we have graduated to high-resolution, flat screen panels that are capable of displaying incredibly detailed, full color, high resolution images, including the seemingly infinite parade of textures that come together to make up the world we know as Second Life.

The very name of this paper refers to yet another concept, which most, though perhaps not all, readers of this paper will be familiar with. The common definition of a “metaverse” is a virtual world that is substantially indistinguishable from reality, or so immersive as to make the differences moot.

The more far-reaching implications, however, include the concept that it is possible to use this virtual world to conduct real-world business, such as the ability to hold staff meetings in a virtual office with employees who are scattered around the real-world globe — which, in fact, is a weekly occurrence for the Messenger staff, not to mention the ability to conduct commerce in a manner that will allow any metaverse user worldwide to easily access your business.

It is obvious that there are many enhancements and improvements that lie ahead for the emerging metaverse. SL members have seen a lot of amazing innovations in our particular world in the last two years. But, if I may, let me present you with my particular vision of what the metaverse may someday be.

Think for a moment about how the use of the particular facet of the internet that we call the World Wide Web has advanced. Fifteen years ago, when the internet had only recently been birthed from the government’s ARPAnet project, the web was a clunky, text-based system, full of silver backgrounds and black text, good for looking up information, but not much else. Graphics and downloadable files were kept to a minimum, since most users were connecting to a server at the local university through a dial-up connection of 9600 bps or slower. Today, the web has become ubiquitous — virtually every business of any size has its website at www.yourbusinessnamehere.com][url=http://www.yourbusinessnamehere.com]www.yourbusinessnamehere.com[/url] or something similar, including the Messenger. Today you can sit in front of your computer, open the web browser of your choice, pull up any web site you like, browse the information there, download files, music, video, or even order merchandise with the click of a mouse. We take it completely for granted.

Imagine the day, which I predict is not that far away, when the various entities that operate virtual worlds similar to SL will establish a standardized protocol for access to their environments. This will make it unnecessary for you to have a specialized SL client, or a There client, or a TSO client. Imagine if, today, you were required to use Microsoft Internet Explorer in order to view msn.com or Microsoft.com, but had to switch to Netscape to visit aol.com or netscape.com, and to Firefox to go to mozilla.com — sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? And yet that is how it is at present with SL and other virtual worlds.

Now imagine a few years from now, opening your virtual reality client software and entering the landscape of the virtual world referred to simply as the metaverse. Your exquisitely detailed avatar rezzes at your home location. A synthesized voice whispers, “Welcome to Second Life. You are now at Sido 175,196.” (That’s the Messenger’s office address, if you’re wondering.) You greet friends and others that you encounter in the area, just as you do now. Then it’s time to get things done; you begin to walk, fly, or drive in the manner of your choice across the virtual landscape. Shortly you come to a colorful sign that says, “Welcome to THERE.” You cross over from Second Life to There to visit a friend. Shortly thereafter, you resume your journey, and cross over another border marker that says “You Are Entering TSO. Welcome to Jolly Pines.” Each virtual world has differences in its nature, but your ability to enter and travel through them is seamlessly transparent.

And, finally, within the ever-expanding world of the metaverse, there will be access to real-world retailers and other businesses. Imagine, rather than visiting amazon.com on the web, entering a virtual Amazon Books & More store in the metaverse and being waited on by a customer service rep’s avatar! Even beyond that, envision walking into a virtual grocer and selecting items from photorealistic grocery shelves, paying for your selections in a manner similar to what we are familiar with in SL, and having them delivered to your real world location in a matter of hours.

Some things won’t be much different in the metaverse than they are on the present-day internet — I predict that we’ll all snicker when we encounter the happy-faced avatars of residents of Yahoo World, and that we’ll still find MetAOLers, with their clunky, primitive-looking avatars, a pain in the rear.

In the flickering light of my computer screen, I smile, close my eyes, and see tomorrow’s virtual landscape… the metaverse, with beautiful meadows and flower gardens to enjoy, amazing cities, and, flooding in through the window of my virtual apartment in NYCOnline, the soft green glow of a *PREEN* store sign.

P2

I tend to agree with Desmond on the point that Google will most likely stick with it's core
expertise. And while they may have the resources to build a new virtual world from the ground up why should they.

Most businesses are primarily concerned with making a profit and technically SL has not proven it can do that in a significant way, especially from a traditional business viewpoint.

From my point of view there is clearly massive business potential in virtual worlds they simply
have not reached a critical mass in terms of external recognition of business functionality.
It is similar to just over ten years ago when many companies did not see any point to having
a web presence. And there really wasn't that much of a point until the internet became a household concept.

I think that 3d worlds do represent a major portion of the next new global paradigm in global communication and technology integration. And that we are entering one of those
transitional periods where what is happening technologically in lots of separate areas
will begin to coalesce. A lot of the new stuff that was coming out ten years ago I would
read about and think "Wow that sounds really cool, I wonder what it will be used for?"

And in many cases even the company or creator responsible for it did not immediately see
it's eventual widespread application. One example is Java, it was originally designed as
an operating system for a set top box in anticipation of the the "Info Superhighway"
which for those who don't know was this gigantic techno monster of zillion dollar infrastructure everyone thought they would have to build before they realized they could just use the Internet.

And that realization was dropped like a bomb by the introduction of the Mosaic browser, which showed people that you Could combine data and images on the same page.

The nineties also saw the use of such by now overused terminology such as "leveraging
synergies" or "virtual corporation". So even though they have been used to the point of silliness by now they still exist as valid concepts.

Please excuse the long post, the reason I am rehashing the past is that I suspect that
we will soon be seeing another wave of technology convergences that will again
transform our overall Internet experience.

Back to the issue at hand I suspect that most of the technology needed to significantly improve our virtual experience already exists and that the challenge lies more in
finding a way to utilize those technologies without having to duplicate, or buy out the other company that owns them.

Any avatar of MINE most certainly DOES, thank you very much. If you want my prim hair, you'll have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers, buster.

Whether Google would buy the technology or rebake it in-house seems beside the question, a detail in a way. To me, Google is essentially a company that creates and/or refines platforms that are used by people to find content made by others. It's not a content company beyond that infrastructure level -- Google provides/acquires the infrastructure used to to find, organize, access that content, whether it is GoogleEarth, Google itself, Gmail ,etc. I could see a VR platform being attractive to Google precisely for that reason -- sure they are not experts at designing the kinds of tools that people need to access and create a virtual landscape, but they could easily acquire them or re-create them. To me that is a detail. The bigger picture is that Google taking on the role of "infrastructure/access/gateway" to a potentially emerging 3D internet has to be extremely attractive to the company given its position vis-a-vis the 2D internet. I see it as a logical, perhaps even a compelling, business case for Google.

I don't think Google is building another SL. They are adding a simple 3D modeling tool to Google maps as far as I can tell. I have checked out Sketch Up a few times (Google 3D modeling tool) and its not very exciting. I checked it out before I discovered SL and went meh. But when I found SL, I got inspired to learn Maya.

And you can't export from Sketch Up except to Google or obscure 3D programs so I don't think Maya or 3D Max have much to worry about. Sketch up still has a learning curve and I don't know if seriously creative people would want to spend the time on it when they could learn a 3D program that could get them a job.

And it is very focused on the "lets not shift the corporate paradigm but lets present as 3D" users. And frankly I would rather talk to an Avatar from where I want to travel then tour a boxy build on Google Maps. I think it will be pretty well all advertising IMHO.

I see this more as another 3D webpage...I don't think SL will be replaced because of its creative roots and dialogs like we get on the forums. That being said, SL could fall because LL could just blow it..its a huge thing they've taken on and success is not a given.

Can you create fantastic things with Sketchup? It seems pretty limited to me. Any Sketch Up users out there?

Lol, you said it all in a few words!

DO NOT TOUCH THE HAIR OR THE SHOES!

And the boys will always go where the girls are!

I think the question is more accurately, "Why shouldn't they?"

Google is poised to take over the world...they went from a secret 'new' search engine, to one of the Fortune 500 in a zip and a snap...and their domination hasn't slowed down one bit.

Creating their own virtual space similar to SL is a natural step--seeing as they have the internet down-pact.

And yes, I think in time gaming, browsing, or exploring will all be optimized and multi-platformed.

ps. In regards to the article (which was wonderful), I have only one concern: buying virtual groceries. I know they will in time be able to render photo real apples...but it's not THE apple I'll be receiving--food is tricky like that...we want to see, hold it, smell it, and on occasion, taste it before we purchase. I just thought that was funny...

Very good take on this and well put! Perhaps Google could be integrated with a platform like Second Life and possibly introduce a more effective way of advertising than is currently used.

I agree in that I'm not certain Google would be successful even if they did take over SL or create their own virtual world. I've noticed several have commented that Google would absolutely make a better virtual world experience with little to back up their argument other than the fact that Google has lots of money and is a big company.

Microsoft tried to compete with Apple in the music player market just last year by introducing the "Zune". I hardly think the Zune is taken seriously by anyone now--and Apple continues to dominate that market. That is an example of a huge, rich, successful company dabbling into something and utterly failing.

Yep you can they have this little free dialog box like system that I haven't totally get it doesn't look like anything I have seen before.
It looks like a tiny message box with some type of tab keys on bottom.
The profressional version is over 600 usd not will to spend that much on program I am not too sure about.
They do have interesting gallary of images that I have used for drawing ideas.

Hehe I had my fill of real news and debate for a while so I thought I'd come back to the idle chatter that is the SL forums!

Trying to spell Iran's president's last name gave me a headache!

I dont get it. Crackpot Dictator is easy to spell.

Yes Phoenix! That's the metaverse I'm looking forward to. Especially my "exquisitely detailed avatar".

I concur, from experience. Google is no Linden Lab. They could not even do a social network right.

I can just see their version of SL now. Bad bad sim. No donut for you!

Wanna bet? I bet it doesn't. I remember the Orkut fiasco.

Bad bad server. No donut for you.

Google generally sucks at anything that requires a social element. They don't do support - so you can bet on it being - free - laggy - with no support.

LL is a freaking dream come true compared to Google support. Yeah... really. :/ I really don't get it why so many folks believe Google will save the VR woarld, but well, whatever.



True they don't give a damn, but just like MySpace and Facebook tore Orkut apart... I don't believe Linden Lab has a darn tooten thing to worry about, given Google's past history in other social endeavours. They are good at things that don't require much assistence - the IM, the email, the Google search/Earth. So now they do a bit of software, but support for 3d software is still a pretty solitary unsocial thing.

Their track record for virtual community bites, and I'm not biting on the Google will save the woarld mantra