Isometric 3D social virtual community Taatu has been out in France, Belgium and the Netherlands since 2005, and they've recently announced an English-language beta. TAATU CEO Philippe Moitroux said that his experiences at the October Virtual Worlds Forum in London helped him realize online worlds had become mainstream enough to expand further.

Taatu is free to access from any web browser with Flash on-board, members get customizable avatars and a free virtual apartment they can customize. Users can share media experiences, play casual games and socialize, even across cultures -- English beta users, for example, can meet users of the French or Dutch communities.

Taatu's core audience is young people aged 10 to 19, and according to the company, 49 percent are male users and 51 percent are female, who spend on average two and a half hours in Taatu every week and visit the site twice daily.

It looks quite a great deal like Habbo Hotel, with the isometric looks, the continentally hip sprites and the lego-like world -- actually, the resemblance is pretty startling!