Google’s Gargantuan Plans or Nothing to See Here?
Google’s Gargantuan Plans or Nothing to See Here?
September 26, 2007: With a corporate image to die for, it’s little wonder that Google guards its secrets very closely, but that hasn’t stopped the rumour mill flying and leaks flowing about a deluge of future plans by the online empire.
These alleged plans include the purchase of wireless spectrums in the US & UK which would be capable of delivering wireless broadband as well as a playable virtual world based on Google Earth satellite maps which would be similar to Second Life, only much more realistic.
Google would dearly like us all to think of the company as the quickly little search engine that is everyone’s friend and surely such a company can do no wrong. What isn’t so publicly advertised is the fact Google owns the world’s biggest online advertising empire and its two co-founders just made the top 10 list for richest American Billionaires.
The speculative intentions add to Google’s confirmed plans of financing an undersea fibre optic cable in the pacific ocean linking American and Asian operations, unveiling Adsense for mobile phones which has the potential to massively increase Google’s revenue and it’s constantly expanding online services portfolio.
The juiciest of these potential plans has to be idea of a Google Earth based virtual world. These virtual worlds are simulations of a world, usually an imaginary one, where players can interact with each other and simulated environments, through characters in the game called avatars. A large number of these worlds have thousands, if not millions of users and are based in science fiction or fantasy worlds with one unique exception, SecondLife which attempts to simulate a more reality based world. Google’s alleged offering would take this one step further and be able to fully virtualise the actual world we live in thanks to its Google Earth technology.
The rumour has gained momentum lately through reports that Arizona State University (ASU) students had been approached to join a beta test and was asking for students who were into online gaming, 3D modeling, were willing to sign a non-disclosure agreement and owned a Gmail account.
"ASU has been uniquiely chosen by a major internet company to be a beta-tester school for a new product that will be publicly launched later this year" said the invitation reported by a macrumours forum member.
The reference to a Gmail account is what has really given the game away, and the project at this point is being labeled ‘My World’. Adding validity to this source is the fact ASU has a long established history with Google, having tested its online applications and Google even has an office at one of ASU’s campuses.
Other sources which have been perpetuating the rumour was a blog post by Michael Eisenburg, a partner at Venture capital which stated “Heard an interesting rumor today from an academic who heard through the PhD grapevine...Google is working on turning Google Earth into a virtual world a la SecondLife”
The sources emerging about a potential Google World also make quite an impact because the idea makes perfect sense. Existing virtual world, SecondLife is regarded as a format of immense potential and companies have invested hefty sums constructing and maintaining a corporate presence inside the world, often attracting people to go with ‘fun’ features such as IBM’s live virtualised US Open broadcast and Telstra’s Island which has Australian based attractions.
SecondLife also boasts a thriving virtual economy, and has in game currency called Linden Dollars which have an official exchange rate to a variety of currencies. Users involved in buying and selling high value commodities such as real estate have been known to make hundreds of thousands, if not millions of real US dollars off the sale of virtual land.
Despite the corporate potential of SecondLife it’s hard for companies to see a return on investment for maintaining a presence there, though it could be classified as persistent advertising. Google would be able to offer everything SecondLife already does, yet it would be in a completely virtualised version of our actual planet, as opposed to a fantasy one. If you consider how much advertising exists in the real world, and how many different companies sell those advertising spaces, imagine how much Google could make if it were selling a virtualised version of every advertising billboard on the planet.
A Google virtual world would draw a lot of its inspiration from the metaverse in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel, Snow Crash, which is largely attributed as being the vision behind current work on fully immersive 3D virtual spaces. The idea of a metaverse has been linked to Google Earth’s technology before, but never has it been more relevant.
Unsurprisingly Google are keeping their lips sealed with neither a confirmation or denial of the reports "We're always looking for new ways to help our users connect with each other, share information, and express themselves, but we don't have any new details to share at this time," a Google spokesperson told Ars.
Google’s existing satellite imagery is so vivid that you can quite clearly see your house and what kind of car you have parked outside, being able to control a virtualised game version of this seems to be the logical next step.