Is Second Life Converting Visitors into Residents?

Hitwise has published some interesting data that reveals that share of US Internet searches for Second Life are up 73%. Visits to the SL site are rising too. On a year-over-year basis, visits to SecondLife.com were up 219% from the week ending 10/22/05 compared to the week ending 10/21/06. Hitwise also notes that the virtual world skews under 45.

But dig into the numbers a little more and it becomes clear that Second Life is a late bloomer. Traffic began to really rise only with all of the recent press coverage. And it's unclear if they are converting visitors into actual residents who participate.

I am a believer in Second Life. It is certainly a phenomenon that will grow and a great place to test out marketing campaigns - if the fit is right. However, I remain skeptical that Second Life will grow at the same pace that podcasting, blogs and other forms of social media did because of the hurdles involved. Not only are there download and processing requirements. But there is also a cost if you want to do more than just explore. This  may keep SL from growing more.