Second Life's PR Punch Dims, But Potential Holds

Although I keep a balanced perspective, I believe that 3D virtual worlds are going to become a place where people will increasingly spend time and conduct business online. Therefore, making an investment or two in Second Life is a worthwhile experiment for certain kinds of brands. It's a bet on a bold new future.

Virtual worlds like Second Life are not right for everyone, of course. You need to know what you want to get out of it.

A recent Forrester Research report noted that the platform isn't quite scalable yet to accommodate huge audiences. It's also mostly made up of male alpha users. Finally, Forrester also correctly observes that the PR value you get by launching a presence in the virtual world has diminished - unless it's truly breakthrough.

The Nasdaq is a great example of a brand that would pack a lot of PR punch by entering Second Life. They remain interested in launching an exchange in the world, but for now are playing it coy. It's smart for them to hold off for a bit.

So why am I still enthusiastic? The reason is that avatars tap into the human need to fantasize and socialize - most likely not as ourselves. Lots of gamers, for example, spend hours playing games like Tiger Woods 2007 so they can win bling for their virtual golf bags. Yahoo Avatars is another site that appears to be thriving, judging by the custom icons I have seen popping up over on Yahoo Answers.

Second Life is like Geocities was in 1998 - a big idea, but a little ahead of its time. I suspect that within a year or two robust 3D virtual worlds will eventually get far easier to use and run completely in a browser. Then they will become more mainstream.