Tag archive: Linden Labs

Back in March, Second Life operators Linden Lab announced plans to create a new segregated area for adult content in their popular virtual world, and announced plans to solicit feedback from Second Life users, content creators, and business operators to work out the details. Now, the Lindens have a plan to deal with adult-oriented content in Second Life, which includes a three-tiered rating system, search filtering capabilities, and a… Read More

Don't let the date on the announcement fool you: to all appearances, this is not an April Fools' joke. Linden Labs, the makers and operators of the popular virtual world Second Life, have announced they're working on a version of Second Life for enterprises that can be deployed as a server product behind corporate firewalls. The effort would create stand-alone, behind-the-firewall versions of Second Life that companies and… Read More

Second Life developer Linden Lab is making a major play for the pocketbooks of virtual world residents—right in its own back yard: The company has announced deals to acquire XStreet SL and OnRez, the two largest Web-based marketplaces for virtual goods in Second Life. Financial details of the deals were not disclosed. The two sites offer online marketplaces where in-world developers and content creators can offer their goods for… Read More

The entertainment publication Variety reports that Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski may be working to bring the Second Life virtual world to the big screen…although perhaps not in a way that would please Linden Labs. According to the paper, Verbinski and Universal have acquired the rights to a 2007 Wall Street Journal article detailing the case of a 53 year-old, married man who spent as much as 20 hours a day in… Read More

Just four and a half months ago, Google launched a new 3D, interactive chat service called Lively, which enabled users to create virtual world avatars and talk with other lively users in 3D spaces. But today, Google announced it will be shutting down Lively at the end of December, saying it wants to focus on its core business activities, including online advertising and search. “Google has always been supportive of this kind of… Read More

At this week's Virtual Worlds Expo, Linden Labs, the creators of the popular virtual world Second Life, announced a new instant messaging and voice client that will let Second Life residents communicate with the Second Life world without the significant overhead of the full-blown Second Life clients. Dubbed “SLim,” the application will enable users to chat with their Second Life cohorts, breaking down some of the barriers… Read More

Technology giant IBM has long been one of the most prominent corporate presences in Linden Labs' virtual world Second Life—and it turns out the company like SL so much, it's planning to set up its own private world. Earlier this week, IBM announced it will be the first company to host regions of the Second Life environment behind its corporate firewall. The idea is to create a region of Second Life where IBM employees can… Read More

Second Life may appear to be a bumble of awkwardly animated characters stuttering around in a virtual world of their own creation, but the United States Congress wants to know what’s really going on behind the scenes. In a House subcommittee hearing held on Tuesday, members drilled Second Life founder Philip Rosedale on the game’s capacity for crime. According to the Los Angeles Times, members of the subcommittee asked about… Read More

Second Life founder Philip Rosedale has announced his company is looking for a new CEO, although he'll be staying on as chairman of the board and still be fulltime at Linden Labs. “I will be 100 percent involved and full time at Linden Lab. Second Life is my life's work, and I am not going anywhere!” Rosedale wrote in an announcement on the company's blog. Rosedale will take over as board chairman from Mitch… Read More

The virtual world Second Life is losing one of it's founders: controversial chief technology officer Cory Onrejka—known in-world as Cory Linden—will be leaving the company at the end of the year. Although Linden Labs' CEO Philip Rosedale describs Onrejka's departure as a move to “pursue new professional challenges out side the company,” both Onrejka and Rosedale have acknowledged the departure stems… Read More

Coinciding with the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo opening today in San Jose, IBM and Linden Labs—the folks who run the popular virtual world Second Life—have announced they intend to develop standards and technologies which will enable world users to move seamlessly between virtual worlds, taking their precious avatars—and, of course, all their virtual commerce capabilities—with them as they go. “As the… Read More

Now users of Linden Labs' online virtual world Second Life have no excuse for their avatars going around in knockoffs: they can get the real deal. Famed fashion designer Giorgo Armani has opened up shop in the virtual world, with the idea of eventually enabling residents to by virtual versions of Armani designs using Second Life's in-world currency, the Linden Dollar. Users will also be able to connect directly from… Read More

All the news out of Sony at this week's Tokyo Game Show isn't about rumble-enabled controllers coming to the PS3. In addition, Sony has announced a delay introducing its online “Home” virtual world, and as sales of the PlayStation 3 continue to disappoint, the company plans to go “back to basics” by expanding its PlayStation 2 business. First, Sony announced it is delaying the launch of its… Read More

The virtual world Second Life has announced it will implement a "voluntary" identity verification system, lifting the often-thin veil of anonymity in its online environment. Although many users of virtual worlds make no secret of their real life age and identity, many virtual world users rely on online anonymity. Second Life creator Linden Labs is implementing an identity verification system not only as a way of letting users… Read More

Have you ever heard of the SexGen Platinum? If you’re a regular on Second Life, you might well have done – you might even own it.   Nowit’s at the center of a lawsuit, which most believe to be the first real life suit between avatars.   So what is SexGen Platinum, anyway? It’s the creation of Kevin Alderman (knownon the site as Stroker Serpentine), who realized that people who had avatars on the popular site… Read More