3D Buzz….

Lindenlab announces interoperability… Scoble blogs on Vivaty… and the rest of the world gets dragged into Google’s newest app called Lively…

*sighhh* The mainstream media is starting another Virtual Hype.

Don’t get me wrong I’m a big fan of Scoble, but a guy who compares WoW with SL™ (isn’t that like we shouldn’t use Outlook no more cause Flash is way more entertaining to look at?) isn’t really the right person to make statement like these is he?

It’s too early to claim they’ve nailed it (they haven’t yet, especially because they haven’t gotten a Mac client out yet) but they get very close to building something really interesting that’ll get a lot of corporate types interested.

Haven’t tried Vivaty yet so can’t judge on it but let’s take a down-to-earth look at Lively then, isn’t it more like an extensive Widget? A ‘closed’ room where we can cartoonishly represent our own Flickr & Youtube stuff in a 3D way ?

(Sorry for the negative tone perhaps, but it just doesn’t get me hyped.  And Yes I know, I am a huge fan of SecondLife® and OpenSim. And it’s not that I’m not open to good alternatives, I just haven’t found them. ).

Now let’s quickly build our 3D rooms and link it to our MySpace and Facebook profiles! Yippiee….

Maybe I’m missing something here, maybe I’ve spent to much time on SecondLife® and OpenSim but what’s the big fuzz all about? First of all I don’t see the ‘must’ for Virtual Environments or experiences to be accessible from the web, I see them replacing the web in the future. Google could become a starting point(library) to search for destinations and directions. Google Maps or Microsoft’s Virtual Earth technology will map out the digital world for us and we’ll have some sort of avatar who will become our digital representative.

A 3D representation of the same stuff we already have in 2D webpages isn’t what I need nor would like to have. I’m not looking for another passive approach, I’d like to experience to engage, be part of something and meet other like minded people.

Sure down the road there will be many competitors, maybe we’ll loose SecondLife® or OpenSim and trade it in for something bigger, better and more engaging.. but please don’t tell me this is the best Google can come up with…