Strawberry Singh has weighed in on the debate over whether or not the Second Life Marketplace is a good thing for in-world commerce.  As of my last check, she’s up to 11 comments and pingbacks, including my own submission.  I’d urge you to go read this and giveconsidered opinion to the matter, then offer up [...]

Bad news comes in from New World Notes:  the Frank Lloyd Wright Virtual Museum, one of the showcases of Second Life intersecting with Real Life, will be closing after Saturday, December 4. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, which was created by Wright before his death to protect his intellectual property, has allowed the license they granted [...]

Instead, it appears that the eminent Mr. Ballmer in Redmond has purchased Vivaty, another virtual world.  Hamlet Au speculates that this might be the source of the rumors which shot through the Plitterverse (that’s both Twitter and Plurk) a few days ago that Microsoft was bidding for the purchase of Linden Lab. So, it appears [...]

So far, it’s just unconfirmed rumors.  But Daniel Voyager plurked today that Microsoft has made a bid for purchase of Linden Lab, with the rumor apparently being spread by Lab employees.  Tateru Nino is also writing this up as a rumor. If this becomes truth, how will this work out, becoming another component in Everyone’s [...]

We’ve had about a day to mull over the news that Mark Kingdon has been given the axe as CEO of Linden Lab, and that Philip Rosedale has resumed the direct control of his brainchild, at least for the interim.  (New World Notes article; Rosedale statement)  As of publishing time, a New World Notes open [...]

…but not as Sinnocent Mirabeau.  And thereby hangs a tale, for the creator of the wild, insane, over-the-top-beautiful prim hair I adore so much was having sixteen tons of trouble with Linden Lab, who for some reason did strange things to her stock and permissions.  She couldn’t edit her own creations, as I recall.  I’m [...]

I finally headed to XStreetSL a few hours ago to do a little shopping.  But the first thing I did, after my fortnightly purchase of lindens, was to transfer some cash over to the XStreet account.  And, wonder of wonders, I didn’t have to hunt down an XStreet terminal…especially at XStreet headquarters (such a pain [...]

Noted in the Wall Street Journal, and linked to in an article by Hamlet Au of New World Notes, Second Life seems to be getting a new (corporate) lease on life.  Companies like Coca-Cola et al. have bugged out at one point or another.  But replacing them are companies that are using the concept of [...]

I’m back from my hiatus, and catching up on some news from the past week or so.  The most interesting thing is Linden Lab’s announcement that they will no longer allow large-scale subdivision of Mainland land parcels into lots of teeny-tiny microparcels (“land cutting”) for commercial reselling at inflated prices, and that they will be [...]

Linden Lab has decided to get into the actual merchandising end of the grid, instead of being just the invisible overlord.  The Big Blog (which links to their press release) informs us that the Lab is purchasing XStreet SL and OnRez, the off-Grid catalogues of virtual goods that are delivered to you in world.  Not [...]