LL: “Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of Viewer 2 Beta, the next generation of Second Life viewers – combining an easy browser-like experience with shared media capabilities – providing what we believe is the best experience yet for accessing Second Life, and a new option to choose from among Viewer 1.23 and other Third Party Viewers. … Shared Media, a standard capability in Viewer 2, makes sharing standard Web-based media and content in Second Life easy, and enables content creators to make more compelling, interactive experiences. Content creators can now place Web pages, video, Flash content, and other web media, onto any surface in Second Life. … But, it’s still Beta. And that’s why we’re putting it into your hands now. So, put it through its paces, stress test it, and give us your feedback in the Viewer 2 Forum.”
SCS: “While all of these features are great, and there is a whole slew more of them… there is something bigger. Perhaps bigger than the launch of the viewer itself, is the launch of Second Life Shared Media (SLSM). SLSM is 100% a game changer for Second Life. It will allow you to display fully interactive, shared web content on any surface of a prim in Second Life including Flash, Javascript, and embedded movies.”
ST: “Viewer 2.0 is, in fact, dozens of long-requested features. The fact that these features we’ve asked for years and years of Linden Lab to deliver for the Second Life platform is a testament to the teams and leadership, and is a very good sign for the longer-term viability of Second Life as a platform. Two of the most stand-out features are HTML on a prim and treating a browser like a browser. But there’s lots more. … Many, many doors have just opened for the possibilities of Second Life. Having interactive HTML and flash support alone makes lots of possibilities available. Combine with an array of interface improvements, and this really is a much cleaner, better experience.”
HB: “The ability to pull WebEx, Google Docs, YouTube videos into a virtual world would be ‘perfect’ for government, educational and enterprise users.”
DW: “This shift goes deeper, however, than rethinking the Second Life experience. There are early hints that this opens up a new front in which Second Life the world, Second Life the brand, and Linden Lab (the company behind it) may no longer be one-and-the-same. – Whether the shift from engineering-based to a more design-based approach, from evolutionary commerce to blatantly commercial, and from business-agnostic to business friendly will so overturn the in-world culture that the result is a diluted online experience remains to be seen. … And welcome to the new future. It begins now.”
VWN: “Perhaps most importantly for bringing new brands and services to Second Life, though, is the ability to drop Web pages, video, Flash content, and other media onto any surface in Second Life. TVs can now broadcast Hulu in the virtual world and arcades can play host to a variety of Flash games (including some casual MMOs) without leaving Second Life. The company also says it will be announcing new services for shared documents and collaboration, making the Web makeover as much about business as entertainment. – With the move towards the mainstream has come a bit more mainstream attention.”
Scoble: “Linden Labs has just released a new player for its virtual world, Second Life. This is important because it makes significant moves toward the Web and shows a new strategy: one of integrating into social networks (much of that shift has yet to come, Linden Lab’s CEO, Mark Kingdon told me in an interview).”
Prokofy: “I’ve never cared about HTML on a prim. If I wanted to HTML on a prim, I’d go out on the Internet, where they have HTML without slowing it down by putting it on a prim. That works best. There really is such a thing as a sensible membrance between web and worlds that is like ‘the blood/brain barrier’. Useful, evolutionarily developed helpful stuff that keeps your brain from being suffused with blood. The membrane that kept out the web from the world of SL for six years was a good thing, too.“
LL: “Second Life Shared Media, a new Viewer 2 capability, makes sharing standard Web-based media in Second Life easy and seamless. It enables content creators to make more compelling, interactive experiences. Basically, Shared Media brings the Internet inworld. – For the more technically inclined, what this means is that you can now put media textures on any prim in Second Life. More specifically, the viewer uses WebKit to create a fully interactive, dynamic texture from a Web URL. … Behind the scenes, Shared Media is different. Second Life always stays synchronized for all Residents. That is, the simulation takes place on our servers, and each person’s viewer renders their perspective on that simulation – everyone is looking at the same thing. Shared Media, on the other hand, can look different to different people — sometimes. Everyone’s instance of the Shared Media is always presenting the same URL.”
BV: “Second Life 2.0 Viewer … has a lot of potential to open the door for more nonprofit, educational and government applications for virtual worlds. … Bringing your web-based content into the virtual world is essential for most organizations that have been operating on the web for the past 15 years. … It’s a lot simpler for a non-expert user to figure out with all the main stuff on handy tabs on the right side and bottom of the screen. … For your average public sector institution, being able to bring in your existing web content, get your users in-world more smoothly, find what you need fast, and access all the power tools, pushes Second Life way ahead of the other virtual world platforms.”
MJ: “Overall, Linden Lab deserve kudos for delivering a significantly revamped viewer that should make using Second Life markedly easier for new residents in particular. Linden Lab have consistently stated their commitment to improving the user experience and this is one of the more concrete examples of how that is now being delivered. The proof of Viewer 2’s success will only come with widespread use, but initial impressions are positive. Of course, Linden Lab need to pull off a usability coup to ensure ongoing growth. Combined with potential improvements in grid performance, the horizon seems a little brighter than it has been in a while.“
Gerrit Eicker 09:52 on 24. February 2010 Permalink |
LL: “Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of Viewer 2 Beta, the next generation of Second Life viewers – combining an easy browser-like experience with shared media capabilities – providing what we believe is the best experience yet for accessing Second Life, and a new option to choose from among Viewer 1.23 and other Third Party Viewers. … Shared Media, a standard capability in Viewer 2, makes sharing standard Web-based media and content in Second Life easy, and enables content creators to make more compelling, interactive experiences. Content creators can now place Web pages, video, Flash content, and other web media, onto any surface in Second Life. … But, it’s still Beta. And that’s why we’re putting it into your hands now. So, put it through its paces, stress test it, and give us your feedback in the Viewer 2 Forum.”
SCS: “While all of these features are great, and there is a whole slew more of them… there is something bigger. Perhaps bigger than the launch of the viewer itself, is the launch of Second Life Shared Media (SLSM). SLSM is 100% a game changer for Second Life. It will allow you to display fully interactive, shared web content on any surface of a prim in Second Life including Flash, Javascript, and embedded movies.”
ST: “Viewer 2.0 is, in fact, dozens of long-requested features. The fact that these features we’ve asked for years and years of Linden Lab to deliver for the Second Life platform is a testament to the teams and leadership, and is a very good sign for the longer-term viability of Second Life as a platform. Two of the most stand-out features are HTML on a prim and treating a browser like a browser. But there’s lots more. … Many, many doors have just opened for the possibilities of Second Life. Having interactive HTML and flash support alone makes lots of possibilities available. Combine with an array of interface improvements, and this really is a much cleaner, better experience.”
HB: “The ability to pull WebEx, Google Docs, YouTube videos into a virtual world would be ‘perfect’ for government, educational and enterprise users.”
DW: “This shift goes deeper, however, than rethinking the Second Life experience. There are early hints that this opens up a new front in which Second Life the world, Second Life the brand, and Linden Lab (the company behind it) may no longer be one-and-the-same. – Whether the shift from engineering-based to a more design-based approach, from evolutionary commerce to blatantly commercial, and from business-agnostic to business friendly will so overturn the in-world culture that the result is a diluted online experience remains to be seen. … And welcome to the new future. It begins now.”
VWN: “Perhaps most importantly for bringing new brands and services to Second Life, though, is the ability to drop Web pages, video, Flash content, and other media onto any surface in Second Life. TVs can now broadcast Hulu in the virtual world and arcades can play host to a variety of Flash games (including some casual MMOs) without leaving Second Life. The company also says it will be announcing new services for shared documents and collaboration, making the Web makeover as much about business as entertainment. – With the move towards the mainstream has come a bit more mainstream attention.”
Scoble: “Linden Labs has just released a new player for its virtual world, Second Life. This is important because it makes significant moves toward the Web and shows a new strategy: one of integrating into social networks (much of that shift has yet to come, Linden Lab’s CEO, Mark Kingdon told me in an interview).”
Prokofy: “I’ve never cared about HTML on a prim. If I wanted to HTML on a prim, I’d go out on the Internet, where they have HTML without slowing it down by putting it on a prim. That works best. There really is such a thing as a sensible membrance between web and worlds that is like ‘the blood/brain barrier’. Useful, evolutionarily developed helpful stuff that keeps your brain from being suffused with blood. The membrane that kept out the web from the world of SL for six years was a good thing, too.“
Gerrit Eicker 09:28 on 25. February 2010 Permalink |
LL: “Second Life Shared Media, a new Viewer 2 capability, makes sharing standard Web-based media in Second Life easy and seamless. It enables content creators to make more compelling, interactive experiences. Basically, Shared Media brings the Internet inworld. – For the more technically inclined, what this means is that you can now put media textures on any prim in Second Life. More specifically, the viewer uses WebKit to create a fully interactive, dynamic texture from a Web URL. … Behind the scenes, Shared Media is different. Second Life always stays synchronized for all Residents. That is, the simulation takes place on our servers, and each person’s viewer renders their perspective on that simulation – everyone is looking at the same thing. Shared Media, on the other hand, can look different to different people — sometimes. Everyone’s instance of the Shared Media is always presenting the same URL.”
BV: “Second Life 2.0 Viewer … has a lot of potential to open the door for more nonprofit, educational and government applications for virtual worlds. … Bringing your web-based content into the virtual world is essential for most organizations that have been operating on the web for the past 15 years. … It’s a lot simpler for a non-expert user to figure out with all the main stuff on handy tabs on the right side and bottom of the screen. … For your average public sector institution, being able to bring in your existing web content, get your users in-world more smoothly, find what you need fast, and access all the power tools, pushes Second Life way ahead of the other virtual world platforms.”
MJ: “Overall, Linden Lab deserve kudos for delivering a significantly revamped viewer that should make using Second Life markedly easier for new residents in particular. Linden Lab have consistently stated their commitment to improving the user experience and this is one of the more concrete examples of how that is now being delivered. The proof of Viewer 2’s success will only come with widespread use, but initial impressions are positive. Of course, Linden Lab need to pull off a usability coup to ensure ongoing growth. Combined with potential improvements in grid performance, the horizon seems a little brighter than it has been in a while.“
Second Life 2.0 « Wir sprechen Online. 19:48 on 31. March 2010 Permalink |
[...] Life 2.0 Linden Lab released the final version of its Second Life Viewer 2.0, ending the public beta; http://j.mp/SLv20 [...]