Google preparing a virtual world?

syndicated with _notizen (german)

It as been speculated for some time, that Google Earth already is a "kind of virtual world" and that Google will quickly develop it into a real competitor of Second Life. The part with "kind of virtual world" is true of course, but only "kind of". Google Earth is a 3D Space (a replica of the real round world) and allows its users to add their own content in the form of additional 3D models. What is missing, though, is what is most important for the success of real virtual world (in my definition): the Avatar. According to a few very plausible rumors this deficit might not be a problem for too long.

Terra Nova, 3pointD and Virtual Words News are reporting, all based on a post at Google Operating System, that students of the Arizona State University have been asked to join the beta test a new online platform by "a major internet company". In the accompanying questionaire these students are asked - among other questions - if the have a gmail account and a "virtual avatar". If you combine that with the fact that Arizona State U already has strong ties with Google in some other project, the conclusions are obvious, though not certain.

I very much doubt - and industry pundits seem to aggree - that this will be a virtual world (similar to SL, There, Entropia etc.) based on Google Earth. It is NOT easy to "just add avatars" to Google Earth. The systems architecture for a performant virtual world, where avatars see and interact with each other, is significantly different from a system like Google Earth and the demands on bandwidth and processing power are hugely greater. (Not that Google is known for limited processing power and bandwidth ...)

The current project seems to be more of an avatar based social network, probably based on an extension of Google's already existing social network Orkut. This project reportately has been under development for quite a while now. Its development has been speeded up lately because of Facebooks raving success. The consensus at the rumor mill is currently "a Facebook + avatars and a little Google Earth". Still, the end result might be a "virtual world" in the sense that Gaia, Club Penguin or Cyworld are virtual worlds, too. Exciting times.

I wonder, how much longer all the naysayers out there will be able to uphold the idea, that virtual worlds are basically superfluous and just a passing fad, after players like Google, Sony and Microsoft are entering the market.

Technorati Tags: 3d web, google, googlewatching, second life, virtual worlds, web 3.d

Comments

[james]

I can also recommend a cool new avatar world. It's called I-Citizen and it came out recently. It's the world's first 3D world and the k800 works like a charm on it. Its fun to play and you can meet people and chat to them as you might have guessed. They have promotions where they give away PS3's and Xboxes to people in a place called I-Bid in the app. Its beta release was announced in March 2008 and anyone can give it a try. You can get it from your mobiles browser or your pc by going to http://wap.Icitizencommunity.Com also check out www.micazook.com for it too.