Worldwide World: OnRez integrates Web browsing into metaverse experience

Last Monday I openly worried if OnRez, the new customized Second Life viewer from The Electric Sheep Company, would AOL-ize the SL experience.  So last Thursday, I stopped by the spacious ESC booth at the Virtual Worlds Expo, where Forseti Svarog and Juillet Fride gave me a hands-on demo of OnRez (along with a sheep-shaped keyring.)  As it turns out, not only is OnRez not a dumbed down version of Second Life, it includes a simple and elegant feature that happens to be, in my opinion, potentially revolutionary.

Why?  Take a look at the first screenshot above.  The OnRez viewer has an address bar; entering the name of a specific Second Life location will take you directly there, while entering a keyword will give you a selection of matching sites to choose.  Very cool, but that's just the start.  Watch what happens when you enter a web address (my blog, in this case) into the same search bar:

Instantly, a full-sized Mozilla browser window pops up, and displays that web page, within the OnRez viewer.  Of course, it's been possible to display Mozilla pages in Second Life for some time, but doing that takes extra effort.  OnRez provides instant and easy web access, and something more powerful:

By integrating HTML addresses and virtual locations into the same navigation interface, the OnRez version of Second Life effectively swallows the Web.

Consider the possibilities: there's no longer any reason to log out or even minimize the SL viewer, to run web applications. Instead, you can check your e-mail, your RSS feeds, blogging, and so on, while still in Second Life.  What's more, the unified browsing experience removes any distinction between the flat Web and the 3D Internet; experientially, you can now easily flit back and forth between websites and immersive data.  If OnRez and other SL viewers like it become more common, I can even see it influencing the Web itself, because it's easy to imagine a time when Google searches will take you into Second Life locations, and back again.

And in this way, Robert Scoble's prediction has come to pass:  Second Life is, at last, an operating system.

Some qualifications from Forseti (Giff Constable): the browser within OnRez isn't yet fully-featured; it doesn't run Flash or some other key plug-ins, for instance.  (I found that out after I entered YouTube.com into the OnRez address window, and got sound, but no video.)  Giff says they're planning on incorporating those in later versions, but then, there's another catch: while the OnRez viewer is an outgrowth of Linden Lab's open source initiative, OnRez itself is close sourced, created with a special commercial license the Sheep received from Linden.  Not necessarily a bad thing, of course, and Giff tells me they plan to open source some of the OnRez features, but that may slow its evolution as a fully functioning operating system.

As for the Build tools, which were removed from OnRez's display (which provoked me to make the AOL analogy), those have merged into a single pulldown menu, as shown above-- probably a better solution than the Linden's existing interface.

The Sheep are improving the rest of the interface now, and it's not difficult to see all the work that remains to be done.  (While the object Inventory button has been re-dubbed "My Stuff" by the Sheep, for example, the inventory UI itself remains the same aggravating mess bequeathed by the Lindens.)

So now I need to ingest some barbecued crow: OnRez isn't the AOL of Second Life, as I caviled.  It's more like its Firefox.  And when it's made publicly available, I'll probably be one of the first to start using it.  Go to this link to sign-up for an automated notification, for when it is.

Comments

[Robbie D]

Quick Question: Is there a Mac version in the pipeline?

[sean percival]

I wouldn't be totally surprised to see this become the viewer of choice. Similar to the mass exodus from IE to firefox the web experienced.

Have to agree that the current inventory system is "teh suck" and look forward to improvements here.

Now excuse me, I have to reload the official viewer for the 5th time today.

[Giff Constable]

Thanks Hamlet. It's going to be an intense 9 days to launch!

To Robbie - yes we are supporting Windows and Mac computers. Unfortunately we do not have the resources to support linux yet.

Many of the changes that we have been able to accomplish in time for CSI launch are at the first layer of the UI, but as Hamlet points out, there are still lots of usability issues in lower levels (hamlet's example was the inventory pop-up window and functionality) that we want to tackle.

[Pavig Lok]

This functionality isn't new - the sl browser has had mozilla in it for a LOOONG time. Unfortunately even though it works pretty well, and at one time could even show youtube videos.... well inexplicably the lindens have never done anything with it. Even so it's been used as the login page for sl and the help system for the last year.

At the moment the browser doesn't do a heck of a lot you can't get by opening an external browser, apart from appearing in the same window. This is a shame for two reasons.

Firstly, it's been there forever, so if it turns into a cut down browser instead of an enhancement then it's selling mozilla short. The mozilla codebase is highly flexable and can turn into almost anything - have a look at http://celtx.com/ where mozilla has been twisted into a screenwriting tool, almost unrecognisable. There is a lot of power in mozilla to do more than just browsing.

Secondly, the secondlife client doesn't have even the most rudimentary human interface elements available to scripters. You can throw up a few buttons or accept text chat - where's the rest of the arsenal, like the most basic UI elements in existance... text boxes for example. All the while we've been waiting for them in script there's been a perfectly good browser in the client which can throw up a form with all the basic elements and nice formatting with minimal fuss.

Leaving scripters waiting years for simple things like text boxes without providing hooks into the internal browser is madness. There's javascript, a DOM, and pretty much all you need to build a web page already within the client. You could feed it with html/javascript from a notecard or suchlike to throw up a user interface for your scripts. Get feedback in world via web forms, use them for gizmo preferences, game interfaces, education, etc.

It's lovely to see the sheep open up functionality that's already there. This has been tinkered with by hackers for ages now. The thing I just don't understand is why nobodys done anything with it.

Now we're looking at a new login method the lindens are working on, where you log into their site via the website using your browser to launch their client. Ahem... there's a browser in the client.

Hopefuly this cracking open of the mozilla code already in SL might prompt the lindens to take advantage of it more. Oh well.

[Nock Forager]

Seems wonderfull! and I'm very interested in "sheep-shaped keyring" too :)

[Tenshi Vielle]

I've utilized the Sheep viewer a lot lately, and while it takes a while to get used to the controls, it in general performs much better than the Linden Lab viewer. I love the new web integration. I feel, however, that with this release Linden Lab falls one more step behind.

Now how about IRC in SL as well? Or MSN?

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

At this stage — not having tested the viewer, of course — I can only hope that the Sheep take over the SL client project from Linden Lab and let them focus on other things instead :-D

It's clear that the Sheep know what we residents want and need.

[Viajero Pugilist]

"Consider the possibilities: there's no longer any reason to log out or even minimize the SL viewer, to run web applications. Instead, you can check your e-mail, your RSS feeds, blogging, and so on, while still in Second Life."

This sentiment ignores the fact that the majority of new users are using underpowered computers with less optimal connections to access SL. "Having it all" is a bit of an unworkable fantasy for most, at least at present.

Until SL becomes less resource-intensive I hope the biggest consideration in developing this viewer becomes not how many marginally-useful bells and whistles can be added into the viewer (an oft-mentioned LL strategic errror), but how to deliver a product without memory leaks, with as low CPU and memory requirements as possible, and with Google-like simplicity and elegance.

That's what we need. Do one thing and do it well.

After all, the main reason 90% of "new residents" stay away from SL after initially checking it out is not SL's content (or perceived lack of content). Instead, isn't that reason the difficulties with the complexity of the viewer, plus server-based or client-induced lag?

I hope LL will incorporate some of the best user-friendly ideas of this competing viewer soon in their own product. Think they're taking notes?

[Opensource Obscure]

Please don't compare ESC viewer to Mozilla Firefox, since this viewer is closed-source (while the official viewer is open - I find this quite sad). Being opensourced, Firefox spawned a vibrant community of developers that make plugins and add-ons for the browser. You can't expect this with a closed source viewer.

Also, unfortunately they are not going to release a Linux version of the client, so thousands of Second Life active users (I'm just one of them) won't even have the chance to enjoy this new experience.

[Alex]

>> Consider the possibilities: there's no longer any
>> reason to log out or even minimize the SL viewer, to run web applications

According to the chat I've had with OnRez technical support (after my 3rd crash), it's not advisable to use the in-game browser for any https access right now -> it's got a rather large security flaw right now.

There's also a nice hacked version of the OnRez client starting to do the rounds that lets you have the 'Shop' button open any url of your choice ... nice if you like the viewer, but find the OnRez experience mind-numbingly snow.

[Alex]

* slow