ICANN CEO Says Virtual Web's The Future
TechCrunch points out that Paul Twomey, CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers -- better known as ICANN -- told an audience during his keynote address at the 2007 Influence Forum that virtual worlds are the future of global commerce.
Twomey says that all fields, including retail, client services, ads and business-to-business will in the future use an interface like that of The Sims Online, pointing out that Google Earth's "game-like" interface has also been given a real-world application -- and that it's an example of the geolocation services that will continue to play an important role in the next generation of virtual web.
As TechCrunch notes, the head of a major Internet governing body states that this "virtual web" of tomorrow is a certainty, not a speculation. It's interesting, though, how he chose The Sims Online as his example and less the other avatar-populated social worlds we're currently using; a sure sign, perhaps, that while we may be headed somewhere, we're not quite there yet.
[Via TechCrunch]
Comments
People better get working on better interfaces, because I've yet to see how a retail buying experience is improved by setting it in a virtual world.
It's easier to click and select things from a menu then walk an avatar into a store, click on the item you want to buy, walk it over to a cashier, etc.
Posted by: steve | September 11, 2007 2:17 PM
Right on steve. The comfort of buying a book at amazon.com comes from not having to walk around in the town and finally in the book store.
So bringing back the 'time waste' of walking around in a 3D virtual store doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Posted by: Frank | September 11, 2007 5:25 PM