Virtual Reality

A followup to last night's Social Media Club conversation, during which the future of virtual worlds was discussed: a new report today from eMarketer says that two virtual worlds, Webkinz and Club Penguin, were on Google's list of the fastest rising search terms in 2007.

That would seem to bear out some of the discussion last night. There was argument that Second Life, still perhaps the best known virtual world, seems to be fading with advertisers, who aren't getting the kind of payback for their investments that they want - possibly because they don't really understand what they have to do to succeed. But other virtual worlds, and both Webkinz and Club Penguin were mentioned, seem to be rising fast. It's still an open question, what the role of virtual worlds will be in tomorrow's web, but few seem to doubt that they will be important, even vital.