Socially|Mundane

Weblin is a way to create an avatar and carry it with you as a visual identity throughout your Internet life - wherever you go through your worldwide web travels.

I've heard of Weblin before. But the idea never really interested me enough to take a closer look and exactly what it is and how it works. In truth, I suspect this is true for a lot of people. And the largest hurdle facing any start-up is adoption. Getting people to know about, and use their product.

There are several three-dimentional and virtual worlds on the market now. The two best-known being World of Warcraft and Second Life. So along come Weblin and Lively and so many others who aren't even making a dent in the public consciousness at large.

Google decides to shut-down Lively and for good reason. The market for virtual worlds is saturated. Many more will be shuttered or fail outright.

The creators of Weblin however, have decided on a different approach: Open a service within Second Life that will allow you to create and replicate your avatar (and overall look) into the Weblin format so you can use Weblin and still be the same you that is found in-world inside Second Life.

Okay on the scale of Second Life-to-Real Life bitchin' ideas, this one ranks pretty high. I mean, c'mon, aren't you so curious that you'll go check out their web site, learn more and maybe even find them in world and give their system a whirl?

Damned right you are.

Tada! Now they have you as anew user... a new user they never would have had without this unique mashup. It's genius.

Weblin Launches Avatar Web Portal in Virtual World - MarketWatch: "Teleporting a Second Life avatar to any Web site is accomplished in just one step -- step into the photo booth in the weblin house within Second Life, get your picture taken and export your current Second Life avatar as a weblin.

Just like weblins, residents defined by their unique Second Life avatars will now be able to seamlessly mesh a universal avatar identity while surfing the web outside of Second Life."

via Market Watch