It is possible that that will soon change, as the LLmedia API has been released to developers. This API lets developers create plug-ins for the Second Life viewer to bring more media-rendering capabilities to the virtual world. Linden explains on the Second Life Blog:

Currently, Residents who own land have the ability to specify a select set of media types to be used on their parcel through the Land Management settings.  This allows Residents to do interesting things like watch videos, show Web pages to visitors, or just add ambiance to inworld spaces with streaming music.  However, the types of media that could be used inworld has been limited to only those that could be rendered by the set of media rendering engines embedded in the Second Life Viewer, such as Apple QuickTime movies.

The LLMedia API will change this by enabling developers to create media rendering plug-ins for the Second Life Viewer. In the future, by installing these plug-ins, you’ll be able to enjoy a wider range of media inworld, without having to download new Viewers to do so. For example, when a plug-in is developed for rendering an additional video format, you’ll be able to view media in that format inworld after downloading and installing that plug-in, without having to wait for a new version of the Second Life Viewer that includes this rendering engine.

Is this going to create the buzz for Second Life that once existed in the days when it was even getting mentions on NBC’s The Office? I’m not sure I would go that far, but APIs tend to open up lots of room for improvement, and this one appears to be a step in the right direction for usability of the virtual world.

Linden says it’s going to take some time for Second Life to get to where it needs to be, but considers this an "important step" in the right direction.

Snowglobe will contain new Second Life features before they become available in the official release. That said, not all features will make it there.

The main feature that Linden Lab is highlighting is a new map. "Zooming out is fast and seamless," says Rob Linden on the company blog. "The icons only show up when you’re zoomed in close enough for them to be useful, and don’t clutter the view when you’re zoomed out. Map tiles load quickly with the right amount of detail for the view. In short, the map really works now."

There is also a mini-map, which lets the user zoom in for extreme close-ups. "Handy for those large gatherings where all of the avatar dots just seem to pile on top of each other," says Linden. "It’s also more fun than you ever knew you could have with your scrollwheel."

Linden warns that the viewer may be less stable than the official Second Life viewer because it is developed on a more rapid release schedule, and in a less formal manner.

A few months back you couldn’t escape media coverage of the brave new virtual world of Second Life. Major brands were building virtual HQ’s, holding virtual meetings and developing virtual marketing campaigns. Coca-Cola, IBM and even the NBA was making its second home there.

However, all’s quiet on the Second Life media front nowadays, and many have long been watching what they believe to be the demise of the once-hyped world. But is it really on the virtual scrapheap?

Not according to Linden Lab chief executive Mark Kingdon. "You read those stories; as CEO I have to shake my head," he said. "The reality is that Second Life continues to grow; every second someone joins. Second Life is hopping."

So what are the virtual world’s current stats? According to recent reports:

- There are more than 15,000 merchants selling virtual goods.

- Over US$1.3 million worth of transactions take place each day.

- In January this year, residents spent 41.5 million hours immersed in Second Life compared with 28.3 million in January, 2008.

- The virtual world boasts over 15 million registered users.

- On average, 70,000 people are logged on to Second Life at any one time.

- The number of active users has risen 25% since September, 2008.

Just last week, Second Life’s blog announced plans to clean up the virtual streets by moving adult content and activity onto its own continent.  While estimates show that just 2%-4% of activity in Second Life would be construed as too sexy for minors, the move will mean residents can feel more comfortable about their environment, safe in the knowledge they won’t be tripping over avatars shooting-up or engaging in lewd sex acts. According to a report in the Washington Post, the “adult continent” will require age verification before it can be accessed. 

Perhaps, despite the lack of hype and media-coverage, there is still life left in the virtual world yet.

Given the economy’s condition, it’s not hard to understand why Google won’t support an unsuccessful product.  A note on the Official Google Blog acknowledges, "[W]hen you take these kinds of risks not every bet is going to pay off. . . .  It has been a tough decision, but we want to ensure that we prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business."

 Lively’s Brief Success, Fast Fall

And Lively, in case anyone isn’t sure, definitely qualifies as a bet that didn’t pay off.  Even if Google plastered the various virtual rooms with ads, Compete numbers suggest that few folks stuck around past the first month.  A look at Lively’s list of "active" rooms verifies its status as a ghost town – by page 3 of 53, almost all of the areas have only received one or two visitors.

Google’s investors can breathe a tiny sigh of relief, then, and Lively fans shouldn’t take the news too hard.  At least Google’s given them over a month to prepare for the cutoff, and a formal announcement available through Lively.com explains, "Embedded rooms in blogs and other web pages will continue to show an image."

Linden Lab hasn’t made any sort of statement in response to this development just yet.

To invoke a recurring motif from the Star Wars saga…

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

The ability to voice chat will no doubt be helpful to legitimate companies and organizations that have chosen to make Second Life their home for collaborative networking and operations.

“Many of the projects my students and I are working on in Second Life will benefit from voice, as we often work with our hands, designing, building and creating,” said Terry Beaubois, AIA, Professor of Architecture and Director of the College of Arts & Architecture’s Creative Research Lab at Montana State University.

“Voice will enable us to communicate and collaborate freely, and I’m looking forward to exploring its use.”

The flip side, however, lies in how the technology will be implemented throughout the shadier parts of the virtual world. Can Linden Lab honestly expect that the power voice chat capability will be used for good and not for evil? Let’s face it; this kind of technology makes the virtual sex industry within Second Life instantly much more profitable.

With that being said, here are some of the particulars surrounding the voice chat features planned for Second Life:

· Voice will be enabled throughout Second Life, and will be available to all Residents.

· To use the voice option, Residents must have a computer headset connected to their PC or Mac. Residents simply log into the Second Life Grid and can automatically start speaking to others on voice-enabled land.

· Mainland ‘parcel’ landowners can choose to disable the voice option on their land at their own discretion.

· Private island owners will have the option to enable voice on their own land, dependent on the terms of their subscription.

· There will be several usage scenarios available in terms of group and private one-to-one conversations:

Scenario 1 – Residents can teleport to voice-enabled land, and automatically start speaking, with the volume of speech modified according to their spatial relationship with others. Up to 100 users can be present in the same audio channel at once.

I like to call this the “complete and utter chaos” scenario.

Scenario 2 – Group conference calls for two or more Residents. This enables Residents to communicate with large groups across geographical boundaries (e.g. concert setting, or between pockets of land etc).

This is the scenario that seems to offer the most tangible benefit.

Scenario 3 - One-to-one personal communication. This enables Residents to privately share a conversation, which can be initiated by an Instant Message. Residents don’t have to be on voice-enabled land to do this.

This, obviously, is the “fantasy” scenario that will please those residents who shell out their Linden dollars for discreet encounters in the back alley, just around the corner from the unofficial virtual campaign headquarters for presidential hopeful John Edwards.

“The addition of voice marks a natural progression in the ongoing evolution of Second Life,” said Joe Miller, Vice President, Platform & Technology Development at Linden Lab.

“We believe Voice is a transformative technology that will change the way Residents communicate, and will lend more immediacy and dynamism to their interaction with others. For example, academic institutions could use the voice feature of Second Life to carry out lectures, corporations could use it for customer training and friends can simply catch up with each other.”

“Voice has always been part of the long-term plan for the Second Life Grid, as we feel it will help Residents become more immersed in their virtual lives,” said Philip Rosedale, CEO at Linden Lab.

“Our approach is to give Residents the tools to create their own unique experience, and we’re hoping that many of them will develop new ways to use voice which will ultimately enrich the collective evolution of Second Life.”

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