Thanks for stopping by with the comment. Regarding Plinking: I agree… but I sorta of think of it as the same thing as contextual link ads; the savvy will ignore and the not savvy will click. and the advertisers who get a click-thru will be happy.

Re: Second Life - LOL. I’m sure ‘those people” would disagree.

BTW: I can’t see to get your site to show.

My personal jury is still out on Second Life. Unless I’m missing something I think those folks are not “wrapped too tight” if you follow me.

Great blog!

Thanks for stopping by with the thoughtful comment (your comment was caught in my spam filter, hence why it took so long for me to get back to it.)

I had heard about Second Life early last year but simply tabled it as “Something to get around to.” Then Last April I came across a Blog post from Web Strategy by Jeremiah on Business Opportunities in Second Life and shortly after that I read the Business Week issue on Second Life that included: My Virtual Life, It’s Not All Fun and Games,  Virtual Land, Real Money, and Virtual Worlds, Real Economies, then decided to take a closer look.

Re: “I am not sure that Second Life will be the platform of choice once competition hots up, but this model has enormous potential.” If you haven’t read part one to the Interview of Jon Glick on Small Business SEM, you should.

Jon, states “Like most brands, Google’s brand strength is based on their initial superiority. Starting in 1999, Google was basically head and shoulders above all of the other engines for five years running. People still hold on to that first impression. If you’re happy with Google, are you really going to go back and see if Ask has improved? It’s similar to traditional brands like Crest. It was the first fluoride toothpaste and is still the top brand despite the fact that all toothpastes have fluoride today.” I would say that the same would be true for Second Life as well (Unless they mess up like Friendster). It’s one of the major “brands” that people are associating with Virtual worlds.

You wrote: “though realizing that potential may be an extremely long shot” Interesting, actually I think that people will realize the potential sooner then other “new technologies” dues to the media coverage. Especially with ideas like “plug-in widgets that allow people to add virtual televisions (and the broadcast network behind them) or virtual home cinema (and the movies to show) to their own virtual properties, and this thing will dominate online for the next decade.” (Excellent, I never actually thought about those applications.) Think about how long it took mainstream media to cover Search marketing (let alone portray SEO correctly… wait that hasn’t quite happened yet) and Blogging. Now compare that time to how long mainstream media has taken to start coverage of Second Life?

It has the potential (though realising that potential may be an extremely long shot) to completely replace the browser-based internet with a more immersive, virtual-reality type of interface.

Virtual schools for remote learning are already in place, allowing students to more intelligently interact not only with each other, but also with virtual objects and learning materials. Virtual conferences and trade shows are surely coming.

This could certainly present huge opportunities to other industries, particularly casinos for instance, who could offer a more immersive and emotive feel to the gambling, with virtual pool hools complete with choice of avatars, smokey rooms, and tense atmospheres with hushed crowds…

On a more traditional level, the virtual mall lets users get a better look at products from clothing to furniture.

The virtual real estate agent doesn’t have to sell only virtual real estate of course. Walk around a selection of properties in their full-scale virtually modelled versions to get a better feel for the property…

I am not sure that Second Life will be the platform of choice once competition hots up, but this model has enormous potential. Just wait for the easy-programming plug-in widgets that allow people to add virtual televisions (and the broadcast network behind them) or virtual home cinema (and the movies to show) to their own virtual properties, and this thing will dominate online for the next decade.