Google's New Virtual World, My World, was rumored about early this year in MarketingVox post titled: Rumor: A Virtual World by Google:

"…The metaverse would use real-world data gathered from Google's existing properties to craft the alternate online platform, writes play.tm. According to Eisenberg, Google is courting in-game ad company AdScape in preparation to monetize the virtual world.

Furthermore, rumor is that a firm in China has been hired to craft avatars while an internal team is building the "metaverse" itself, thanks to a team that has come over from There.com, another online virtual world."

"My World" questionnaire

Even last year, an article on Google moves into virtual worlds by CNN Money, predicted much of what I'm now going to talk about:

"…I would expect to see someone using Google Earth as a virtual social space by the end of the year," says Jerry Paffendorf, research director of the Acceleration Studies Foundation, a futurist organization.

Paffendorf isn't just sitting around waiting for the metaverse to happen, either. Last weekend he helped arrange something called the Metaverse Roadmap Summit, a gathering of programmers of virtual worlds.

The idea of the summit was to outline how we're going to get from here to the metaverse in ten years. There were major disagreements between the attendees, most notably between those who believe the Web should stay as a 2-D environment with 3-D components, and those who want the Web to become a 3-D metaverse-like environment where your avatar can call up 2-D screens if and when they need to - say, for a word-processing program.

Those in the latter camp believe, like Paffendorf, that Google Earth is the most likely candidate to become a metaverse. Just add avatars, they say, and the possibilities are endless."

I've met Jerry Paffendorf a couple of times in New York, and I think what he's talking about is now ready to become true, to  happen as highlighted in Rumor: Google Virtual World Imminent in Metaversed.

"…We've carried stories of Google and Second Life mashups in the past, but the latest from the Google Operating System blog is that they may be in the testing phase of a virtual world of their own."

Today Google's Virtual World Could Be Business Answer To Second Life in Information Week predicts that Google is now ready to:

"…launch its own virtual world, which will compete with Second Life, but could be much more valuable to business users in real-world applications.

Google's venture could be competitive right out of the box. That's because My World — the expected name for the venture — won't be starting from scratch. It will likely be cobbled together from a bunch of technologies already in existence at the company, including Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google SketchUp for 3-D modeling."

There's few details out yet, but I think Google's entrance into Virtual Worlds has the potential both to revitalize the subject of 3D Virtual Worlds (giving it more legitimacy) and shake up the existing players, which is probably a good thing … but perhaps, with unpredictable results.

I think we'll know more in the next month or so about when "My World" or whatever the new "GoogleWorld" is formally announced.