GOOGLE vs. SECOND LIFE

It has been rumored by the Times Online that Google will sponsor its own version of an Internet community. This community will rival that of the already popular second life. Although Google itself has not confirmed this rumor most experts can think of no one else who would take on such a venture. According to the times Arizona State university, which has strong ties with Google, announced that its students are to be given the opportunity to test a new product "that will be publicly launched later this year" and that would involve 3d gaming and modeling. The University also said that the project was being developed by a major Internet company, which has of course led many people to speculate about google's involvement. The speculation about google's involvement was fuelled by a blog post this year from Michael Eisenberg, a partner at Benchmark Capital, the technology-focused venture capital group, who said he had heard Google is working on turning Google Earth into a virtual universe of its own. For those of you who don't know, Google Earth is a virtual model of the globe using satellite imagery. Mr Eisenberg added: “After hearing this, I was struck by the language on the Google Earth website: 'One more step to creating a lifelike 3-D model of the whole planet'.” Google's involvement would not surprise me in the least, I think we should expect an official announcement at some time in the next few months. What do you guys think?