beyond second life

Second Life's dominance over the virtual world is beginning to show some cracks around the edges. It is predicted that within four years 80% of web users will have an account in a virtual world. But it is still to be seen how many of those people will actually be in Second Life. Advertisers are beginning to go elsewhere, China is making its own competing virtual worlds, and the very success of Second Life will force many websites to offer a 3-D virtual experience. In the not too long future Metaverse browsers will seamlessly take you from virtual world to virtual world, soon the entire web will be Second Life. Soon the most important webpage for a person will be their three dimensional Myspace page that will serve as the entry gates] to all the other virtual worlds. How and from where will you access your virtual world?

Read MIT Technology Review's Second Earth.

Quote (via the filter of Wired):
What's coming is a larger digital environment combining elements of all these technologies--a '3-D Internet,' to use the term preferred by David Rolston, CEO of Forterra Systems, a company in San Mateo, CA, that makes immersive training simulations for the U.S. Department of Defense and other first-responder agencies. People will enter this environment using PC-based software similar to the programs that already grant access to Second Life and Google Earth. These "Metaverse browsers" will be to the 3-D Internet what Mosaic and Netscape were to the dot-com revolution--tools that both provide structure (by defining what's possible) and enable infinite experimentation.

There will be a bunch of different worlds, owned, controlled, and operated by different organizations. They will be built on different platforms, and you will have community standards about how you can connect these worlds, and open-source software that carries you between them. The word "Metaverse" will refer to both the overarching collection of these worlds and the main port of entry to them, a sort of Grand Cyber Station that links to all other destinations.

Zwinky, one of Second Life's many competitors.