Google Checkout is finally here. We’ve been hearing about Gbuy/Gpay across the entire blogosphere for the past 3 months with all sorts of forecasts and assumptions as to what it actually was going to be.

It’s essentially an Internet Wallet that we’ve all seen back in 2001. Google Checkout is that you can buy from stores with a single Google login – no more entering the same info each time you buy, and no more having to remember different usernames and passwords for each store.

Current partners in the program include: Jockey, Starbucks Store, Levi’s, Dockers, Buy.com, Timberland, and Zales (amongst others)

Check out the Official Google blog for more information…

I bet you didn’t think you’d be able to watch Wimbledon within Second Life, did you? Ian Hughes has been developing a full Wimbledon environment within Second Life with the following:

• security gate is there to show you can detect things about peoples avatars
• RSS weather feed globe
• world tracking data for actual tennis matches
• The flying wimbledon towel. When anyone clicks the towel it act like a normal banner ad and directs them to the real wimbledon shop for the real towel
• advert watching posts
• and much more

Check out Ian’s blog to learn more.

Second Life. tennis, content

As a huge fan of live music and also an avid virtual world inhabitant, I’m ecstatic when the two worlds collide. An article came out late yesterday on MTV.com with the title, Are Virtual U2 Concerts Even Better Than The Real Thing?

This is a great article that shares insight into the virtual world concert arenas. For me, going to concerts is about the community of fans that are there to experience the thrill of the live show - building up commradere amongst thousands of people. It’s also about the vibe the band radiates whilst on stage- while solo-ing or holding a high note. Up until now, watching a concert on the web, whether thru AOL, Network Live, or the defunct DCN has been solitary. Yes, thousands of other people are watching, but their not “experiencing.” The virtual world arena allows people, albeit due to land/scale issues in Second Life… not many, to experience the concert with other people in real-time.

This is fundamentally significant. Concerts aren’t about just watching - they are about the experience. Finally, a medium such as Second Life can deliver this… More to come about concerts and community….

When we think social networking, most of us can name Myspace.com immediately, but if you’ve graduated from college in 2003 or less, you probably can also name TheFacebook.com, or their newer name, Facebook.com.

A major advertising holding company, IPG (Interpublic Group of Cos.) is nearing a deal to purchase a 0.5% stake in the organization. IPG has 2 significant media agencies within: Initiative Media Worldwide and Universal McCann. R/GA is part of the holding company as well. Not only will IPG media agencies purchase their media on Facebook.com, but ideally, and I personally think they should use the platform to mine the data… forecast trends and understand what college and high school kids are doing and WHY. There is tons of data that they have… IPG can leverage this for their clients to provide valuable insights.

Denuo (Publicis) has hinted at M&A and investments in the media space but this would be an unexpected move by IPG who has been hurting financially lately.

Tags:Â Facebook, M&A, IPG, Social Networking, and community

As many of you know, I am an active Second Life’r under the name Jay Prevost and tend to follow all the businesses starting in/around the virtual world. While reading my RSS feeds this morning, Mark Wallace alluded to American Apparel opening a virtual store on a private island within Second Life.

Aimee Weber designed the store and the products within possibly with other artists. The clothing within the store are for sale and are priced higher than other in-world clothing but are still reasonable.

I personally think that this is a good move for American Apparel. The reason for this is that the clothing that they make fit extremely well with Second Life. When Levi’s went into There.com (another virtual worl) a few years ago (2 years?), they were worried with the texture and color of their jeans. The brand American Apparel is simple in this respect as their clothing is ultra-plain. No intricate details and no crazy pantone colors - all very simple. I think that the brand will portray well within the virtual world and will be adopted.

I’ll be keeping my eyes open for the store opening.

Tags:Â Second Life, American Apparel

Something that’s been hinted at in the press has finally surfaced in the NY Times today.  Google’s top secret data center project has come into full view - however, anyone that knows anything about the project has been sworn to secrecy under strict NDAs (I don’t blame them).  We know that Microsoft and Yahoo! have their own independent projects going on in the Pacific Northwest as well…

The article is located here.

Tags:  Google, data center

My friends over at Union Square Ventures (USV) have closed on an investment in Oddcast last week.  I’ve written about avatars in the past and I’m still extremely bullish on them.  Like I said in previous posts, they need to be portable so that different types of applications can utilize them… once this happens, then they will scale well.

I’ve also been seeing a few companies pop up that are custom designing avatars based on pictures that you send them.  Springwise.com today announced a service that makes cartoonish type avatars based on what you want, for about $3 USD.

Had a fantastic lunch with Sean Ryan last week of Meez and he alluded to some amazing things they are doing with their organization.  I think the avatar world is just starting to heat up… digital identities will become a big business.

Tags: oddcast, avatar, meez, custom, union square ventures, web 2.0

I’m not sure if it’s the weather, or something else, but in one of my circles of friends, I’ve been fortunate to be within, avatars are the hot topic of late. Again, a key issue that comes up repeatedly is the standardization of avatars which will allow them to become portable. Once they are portable, then the avatar industry can really take off…. inclusion of avatars in websites, video games, virtual worlds, your credit card, clothing, log-in screens, etc. We are just cracking the surface of where we can take avatars.

Mark Wallace has posted some similar thoughts on the subject. I happen to really agree with his quote below:

I can’t tell you which 3D technology is going to become dominant, whether its AW’s, SL’s, There’s, Multiverse’s or one that’s yet to emerge. But whatever it is (or whatever set of such technologies, more likely), we’ll want a way to navigate between them more seamlessly than we can navigate between even 2D Web sites today.