Remember, that’s that virtual world that got a TON of hype back in 2005/6. It was on the cover of magazines. On CNN and other TV shows. It looked like it was going to be THE new thing of the decade.

What happened?

Well, a few things.

1. Corporations figured out that they’d need to spend a lot of money to build an island in Second Life (Microsoft spent somewhere around $100,000 if I remember right back then) but soon they figured out that each island could only hold 100 people. Not a good ROI.

2. It had game dynamics. Games are fun for a while, but eventually people get bored of playing games. That’s what happened. People who were very excited and evangelistic about Second Life eventually moved on.

3. It lost its “new and shiny” patina. That’s most of why the press forgot about it. We only pay attention to new and cool stuff. Heck, just look at Techcrunch. Do you read about older technologies there? No.

Anyway, one thing happened that I find very interesting: it continued to grow in users, time spent on the site, and dollars spent in it.

On Friday I sat down with Mark to find out why.

First, the users remained very evangelistic. Second, corporations like IBM found other uses for its islands and kept investing (they now use these islands for training and replacements of expensive conferences). Third, the technology has been steadily improving. Fourth, the company has found new ways to bring new users in and make the experience easier to get into.

But he admitted that they had been pretty quiet and avoided doing more PR work until just recently.

Why is that changing this week? You’ll see why tomorrow morning at about 11 a.m. on building43.

But to tease a bit, I find that their new direction, the first part of which you’ll see tomorrow in the video I did with Mark, is interesting and represents a new life for Second Life and its host Linden Labs.

To wrap this up, have you used Second Life lately? Even if you haven’t, see you on building43 tomorrow morning for more.

Comments

The photos feature descriptions and are categorized allowing users to view, rate, share and link to images in the vast collection.  In addition to the Life photos, Getty plans on adding about 3,000 new images daily.

"Whatever you want to look at, whether it happened an hour ago, a century ago, or any time in between, you’ll be able to find it quickly, easily, and for free. Life.com’s mission is to allow you to explore your world through the world’s greatest images," said Andrew Blau, CEO of Life.com.

The site will feature photo galleries, news, celebrity, sports, travel and animals along with timely photos to be offered daily.  Users will be able to search photos by topic, time period, interest and by photographer. Framed prints will also be available for purchase.

"The Life.com tagline, ‘See your world,’ demonstrates the access consumers have to the photos that have shaped their lives. From photos of newsmakers and heroes who have made a profound impact on our lives, to classic Hollywood and celebrity images that have shaped our culture, this expansive photo collection gives the public seven million new ways to see their world," said Bill Shapiro, Life.com Editor.
 

One of the most interesting things about the project is 97 percent of the photographs have never been seen by the public. The collection contains iconic images from the 20th century with works from LIFE photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White, Gordon Parks, and W.Eugene Smith.

These images can be found by doing a search on Google.com or on Google Image Search. Users can also search through the LIFE Collection.

The LIFE Photo Archive on Google will be one of the largest professional photography collections on the Internet and one of the largest scanning projects ever conducted. Millions of images have been scanned and made available on Google Image Search and all 10 million images will be available in the coming months.

"LIFE will now reach a broader audience and engage them online with the incredible depth and breadth of the LIFE Photo Archive from serious world events, to Hollywood celebrities to whimsical photographs," said Andy Blau, LIFE’s President.

All keywords were translated into 16 different languages.

"Bringing millions of never-before-seen offline images online aligns with Google’s mission to organize all the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful," said R.J. Pittman, Director of Product Management at Google.

"The LIFE Photo Archive captures some of the most compelling events, people and places of the past two hundred years. We have enhanced Google Image Search to provide our users with a rich search and browse experience to explore these high quality historical images."

The LIFE Photo Archive also includes: The Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination; The Mansell Collection from London; Dahlstrom glass plates of New York and environs from the 1880′s.