Xstreet SL and OnRez to Join Linden Lab!

Today we are very happy to share some exciting news with you: Linden Lab has acquired Xstreet SL and OnRez - the two leading Web-based marketplaces for buying and selling creations for Second Life. Over the past few months we’ve been working with the folks at Virtuatrade and the Electric Sheep Company to hammer out the details, and today is the first day that we’ve been able to talk openly about this next step in our evolution.

The Next Chapter for Xstreet SL and OnRez
First off, we’d like to congratulate both teams for their vision, passion and commitment. Xstreet SL and OnRez succeeded because they provided great opportunities for merchants, built delightful experiences for shoppers, and fostered dynamic and creative communities. Hats off to them!

We’d especially like to welcome Apotheus Silverman and the Xstreet SL team. Apotheus and key members of his team will be joining Linden Lab to integrate the Xstreet SL platform deeply into Second Life. This new team will shape our future plans and will continue to provide the high standard of service and support that Xstreet SL customers have come to expect.

Welcome Xstreet SL and OnRez merchants and shoppers!
Our second order of business is to extend a warm welcome to the merchants and shoppers of Xstreet SL and OnRez. The Xstreet SL and OnRez communities are (and will continue to be) critical to the success of those marketplaces, and we look forward to partnering with you and providing a fun and engaging shopping experience. As we go forward towards a single, unified Second Life marketplace, we are excited to build on the work that you, along with Xstreet SL and OnRez teams, have done.

I am an Xstreet SL/OnRez merchant or shopper, what should I do now?
Our goal is make this transition as smooth as possible for you in the weeks ahead. Because our plan is to build on the Xstreet SL platform, so this will be a painless transition for Xstreet SL merchants: your business will continue as usual. Check out the FAQ here for more details.

For Xstreet SL shoppers, no action is necessary as your balances and account information will be unaffected.

We will continue to operate the OnRez marketplace until February 11, 2009. Before that date, OnRez merchants who don’t already have an Xstreet SL account should create an Xstreet SL account and move their assets, balances and account information over to it. We apologize in advance for the inconvenience. Details on creating an Xstreet SL account are here.

If you are an OnRez shopper with a current balance, please transfer your account balances to a Second Life account before February 11, 2009.

New Opportunities
For many residents, shopping inworld is one of the most engaging parts of Second Life. But as many Xstreet SL and OnRez users already know, having a web marketplace to browse and search is a great way to find new designers, keep up with the latest creations, or just find that perfect gift/texture/dress/home/weapon/couch. Our goal is to make the web marketplace a wonderful complement to inworld shopping and a great benefit for all Residents.

Bringing these marketplaces together under the Linden Lab banner will unlock new and exciting opportunities for merchants. We can make it easier for new Residents to discover the wealth of products that can enrich their Second Life experience, and this in turn offers the opportunity for new users to become more invested in Second Life. We look forward to helping you reach new customers, promote your businesses, and build your sales.

There is also potential to evolve the shopping experience with new tools (sharable wish lists, anyone? Gifting to non-Residents? Scheduled deliveries?) and capabilities. But like Amazon or Ebay, the core of the experience will always be about efficiency. Kitting out your avatar, buying a house/castle/skybox, or getting your inworld business off of the ground can be done in minutes. The range of offerings is both impressive and accessible and the goods are delivered inworld quickly. And because the shopping experience is browser-based, it’s easy to shop from work (on your lunch hour, naturally!)

If you haven’t visited Xstreet SL yet, check it out.

Let us know your thoughts
While there are many exciting features to contemplate, we’re in the very early stages of this project and we have plenty of work ahead of us just to get the basic integration done. We will have much more to say about what to expect in the coming weeks and months.

In the meantime, we’d love to hear your thoughts about what you would like to see or what would be the most beneficial to you and your inworld business. We invite you to check out the acquisition FAQs, or simply browse for something to buy.

__

Reposted from T Linden's Blog post at
http://blog.secondlife.com/2009/01/20/xstreet-sl-and-onrez-to-join-linden-lab

This is kind of a downer.

I guess the rumor thread was right.

It seems to me that it would it would be real good to include a statement that this is a reposting of text from the blog and stating who the author is.

Hmm, I'd been in the Kaneva virtual world earlier and noticed that for at least some items, when you went to buy them in the Kaneva virtual world, it pulled up a web based shopping site in your default browser. Interesting.

Most designers have their items listed on both, so I do not expect this transition to be a hard one.

I wonder if you are keeping the same format (for example the item categories) as they exist now on XStreet SL?

I used both websites because I found XStreet to have a broader range of categories, and OnRez had the wonderful vendor function.

Which leads me to my next question:
will you be incorporating that feature? Being able to set up a variety of vendor packs online and then rezzing them in world anytime with just a few clicks is a seriously fabulous feature.

It would be a shame to lose that, as well as the deep variety of item categories.

If I had to choose between the two: I would say add the vendors/packs feature into XStreet
a brilliant innovation IMHO

Thanks for listening
~Amber

and was authored by Tom Hale aka T Linden. Tom will be available in the forums to comment on the acquisition tonight.

thanks for the suggestion Suzanne!

One of the reasons i am listed with onrez is the fact that they have a smooth vending system...it is sublime and easy to operate....I have simplified things a bit and now use 3 vendors in mui stores... it would be nice if xstreet could incorprate this type of system..
as it would be about 150 products that i am unable to list >:/

I know it is in the works with hippo...which i applaud but would be sooo nice to have it in place for the move

What effect will this have on the database query load?

How about fixing your own mess before making a mess of services that actually do work, the only reason xstreet is ever down is because of LL's database not being able to hack it. I only give you a few hundred dollars a month but would be more impressed with the acquisition of decent database software and not the freest thing you can find. Not Impressed.

So how about Hippo's lately marriage to XStreetSL....does that mean that SL will now build or benefit that project over other vendor creators ?

Or worse. Does it mean that LL will now be directly competing with other vendor creators by continuing the faulty xVend project from XStreet.

I think this decision stinks and as a minimum demands a fast respond to this exact issue.
We are alot of creators of vending machines in sl who will be damaged awefully of this if thise will be the result.

/Zep

No need to buy land or rent a shop now. More yellowing of the grid. Move your business to a 512 and toss your merchandise into a box.

Can you say "Monopoly"?

I'm HUGELY disappointed in this news... Linden Lab does not have a good reputation when it comes to reliability and customer service, and in fact has a proven track record of poor performance in both areas.

I hope for the best, as SLX has long been hugely important to me as a content creator and it's L$ exchange has enabled me to conduct business in an efficient manner, but I fear that if it goes downhill there won't be any reason for me to remain in SL any longer.

I wonder how many in these forums feel that this will keep an already efficient and productive marketing system in effect for Xstreet Merchants? Does anyone seriously expect management of this vital service by LL to be an improvement . . . really?

Xstreet cared about it's merchants, I am still waiting for some indication that LL does too (lip service excluded).

How are we to see LL dabbling in this most effective marketing tool as an improvement for us merchants in any way?



And I love how this is another surprise announcement by LL, just like the Open Space debacle. It reminds me of the husband telling his wife casually, "oh by the way honey, I just pawned all your jewelry for some extra cash! Isn't that exciting? Let's have a nice dinner to celebrate!"

I wonder what it will be like if Big Spaceship gets it's hands on it.

Hopefully, it will lead to better integration of the SL client and XstreetSL services...

Will you be continuing the XstreetSL/Hippo Xvend project - the inworld vendor, gifting and storecard system?

Thanks for the comments Amber. We definitely want to keep a solid set of categories. We are likely to refine them a bit, but we love having categories to shop in. We would like to create a vendor system or a set of tools for allowing you to manage generic vendors from within the marketplace down the road. I would expect these changes are a little ways off as we've got a lot of features and redesigns strictly within the web marketplace that we want to get in place first.

Thanks again for the input
--Colossus

This makes me cry a little knowing you guys will have your bumbling staff touching it.
Xstreet works pretty well. Please dont Linden it.

I guess this was the obvious step on the road to creating the IPG to become the ATM of the enterwebz.... and they called me mad back at the labratory.

I have zero faith that you will produce a better service. The line about how xstreet will now have the same professional customer service as LL is beyond a bad joke. I wish your marketing monkies would stop speaking in tongues. I think we all do.

So, stop with the BS about share your thoughts on the future...just do what you are going to do before i get old and die.

Carry on.

THIS SUCKS!!!

You guys cant even get SL to work right and all ya do is give lame excuses that people make fun of you over!
Now ya take out the 2 best shopping sites for SL.. Ya I knwo the lies you gona spew how you'll intergrate it into SL.. thats a load of bs.. you guys CANT you dont have the skilled coders you cant even keep SL up and running for a month at a time your customer service is a joke in the tech world... and no one trusts you guys any longer for very good reason// well not like venting is gona change t both OnRez and SLX are gona go the way of GOM.. remember that place... you bought them out to kill it off... and did it very well... SLX merchants not need to find a different place to sell..

The reason I never used Xstreet was becuase they charge a comission and onrez didn't. Are they still going to do this? thats what I want to know

I will second this.....

XStreet is the ebay of SL and the only reason I can see why SL would buy ONREZ also is to use their inworld vendor code rather than developing from scratch.

This should be PRIORITY ONE for the linden commerce team.

That system is happily canceled...else all vendor creators in sl had been working for nothing over the years.

Thanks for the quick feedback, good and bad. We're here to listen and to learn.

@Ambergris and Raver
Thanks for the suggestion to look at the vending capability from OnRez. This will be a great thing for the new team to look at. But we have lots of basic integration work to do first.

@Zep and other vendor creators
Our goal is to create a great marketplace to enable Resident businesses. We succeed when you succeed. So it's not our intent to compete with you at all.

@Ewan and SuezanneC
Grid Stability is our first priority and we have lots of resources focused on this. That's one of the reasons we elected to work with the Xstreet team. And since Apotheus and his team are coming over to Linden Lab, we are confident that they can continue the high level of uptime and service for the Xstreet SL store.

Does this mean that my previously convenient ability to cash in using SLX and send the money to my PayPal account within minutes will now take a week or more like Second Life's currency exchange?

I sincerely hope not.


.

Why not work on a plan to automatically transfer OnRez funds to their associated SL accounts once it's shut down?

Why is the OnRez time-line for both selling items and withdrawing funds, exactly the same? Should there not be a grace period in between?

Once OnRez is shut down, who will pocket all the funds left behind by vendors who missed this (being on vacation, sick, busy, who knows!) - LL, OnRez? How much money will this amount to?

Apart from this gaping oversight, I quite welcome the consolidation of these services. It'll certainly make management easier for vendors.