ReadWriteWeb

Sometimes, no matter how compelling your service, it all comes down to the basics. When the buzz begins to die down, you have to resort to compelling content to sell your site and services. This goes for every site. Even Second Life, who recently discovered that their existing home page design wasn't doing the site justice. Now, after testing a new design for their landing page, they're going live with a new design and the Lindens are hoping that it will continue to motivate more residents to join the Second Life community.

What's going on with the 3D web? At one point, it was being heralded as the next big thing. Is that still the case? Take for example, the virtual world Second Life. Once a booming place where every business had set up their online presence, the formerly happening hotspot is now gloomy and dead. As one-time Second Life reporter Eric Krangel said, hanging out in Second Life is "about as fun as watching paint dry."

Forterra Systems, a company aiming to bring virtual world technology to enterprises, will shortly release a report entitled Recipe for Success with Enterprise Virtual Worlds. ReadWriteWeb was given an exclusive first look at the report. It is based on pilots conducted with consulting firms Accenture and ACS, using Forterra's virtual world product called OLIVE (On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment). One of the more interesting conclusions of the report is that virtual worlds are both more engaging and less expensive to operate than audio and web conference systems. Although as we shall see, there are still I.T. and usability issues with virtual worlds - which Forterra and other vendors will need to overcome.

While IBM and Linden Labs are cozying up to each other, Google has just released its own virtual world: Lively. Lively is available through a browser plugin for Firefox and Internet Explorer. It is Windows only for now. Lively does not feature one coherent world like Second Life but splits worlds up into different rooms. Lively was originally developed as a 20% project by Niniane Wang.

Forget taking a class in social media, how about taking a class in social media? Specifically, virtual worlds. No, not taking a class about virtual worlds, but actually donning an avatar and going to see your professor (who very well could be dressed as a unicorn) inside Second Life. That's a reality for some students of San Jose State University, which has a 16 "acre" virtual campus for their Library Sciences department. In tough economic times, universities and companies are starting to return to the virtual world as a cost-cutting measure.

Even as it faces a long list of other problems, LindenLabs announced today that it will begin enforcing its copyright against unauthorized use in 90 days. An official post on the SecondLife blog introduced a new website called the SecondLife Brand Center.

"The Brand Center," Catherine Linden writes for the company, "explains how Residents can promote their own brands, products and activities in the Second Life world and use appropriate logos to enhance their message." That's a remarkably positive way to describe what's mostly a list of thou-shalt-nots, combined with an ugly new logo that users are allowed to put on their stuff.

Forrester has released a new report into the use of virtual worlds in the workplace. The report makes the big claim that "within five years, the 3-D Internet will be as important for work as the Web is today". But before we get too carried away, the report also notes that right now virtual worlds are not user friendly to the enterprise crowd - "you’ve practically got to be a gamer to use most of these tools", Forrester notes.

The report, entitled 'Getting Real Work Done In Virtual Worlds', states that Virtual worlds like Second Life, There.com, and "more business-focused offerings" are on the verge of becoming valuable work tools.