New World Notes

Are You Thankful for Second Life's Sleek New Search User Interface?

I just gave this a quick spin (watch above):

Today we’re excited to announce that we’ve updated the look of our inworld and web-side Search feature to bring it more in line with the look and feel of our viewer and the direction that that rest of our web properties will be going... Our goal was to clean up the interface and provide a more streamlined and user friendly Search feature that maintained all the functionality that we’ve all come to expect and rely upon. Helpful tool tips will guide you in getting the most functionality out of your searches, and will update as we add more options for more sophisticated searches.

The user interface is definitely prettier! As for the user experience... well, you can watch above and make your own judgements. I ran it on a gamer laptop that plays the new AAA Deathloop game beautifully and with very little performance issues. Worth bearing in mind that Google came to dominate the search engine market back in olden times (by which I mean 2000) not because it was pretty but because it was ruthlessly streamlined to give the user relevant results as quickly as possible.

Firestorm Developer: I Want to Work for Linden Lab -- But Would Linden Lab Really Want Me or Firestorm?

Interesting conversation over last week's post about the paradox of the for-profit Linden Lab being utterly dependent on the free labor of the non-profit Firestorm team -- including this comment by Firestorm developer Tonya Souther:

Disclaimer: I'm speaking only for myself, not the Firestorm team.

Personally, I'd love to be hired by Linden Lab. I've even applied a couple of times. But I'm not the tiniest bit interested in living in either California or Massachusetts, and while they are now open once more to hiring remote employees (they weren't for several years), they do not as yet hire in Minnesota where I live. I think it would be a great place to work, even if I would have to give up my connection with the Firestorm team.

For the record, Linden Lab also has offices in Seattle, Charlottesville, and (this is new to me, but they're currently hiring at this satellite) Peachtree Corners, Georgia. (Which looks lovely!) 

In any case, Tonya goes on, most of the Firestorm team isn't even in the US. And then there's the question of whether Linden Lab would really want to take over the Firestorm codebase (another frequently raised suggestion), as it includes some rather kinky upgrades:

The Question About Second Life That Linden Lab Has Yet to Answer

Pictured: The Hilarious Hell Of The Second Life Noob Experience

Linden Lab answered nearly every reader question in response to my Ebbe Altberg interview recently, but there's one last follow-up to those follow-ups that they have yet to address:

Any plans for redoing the Viewer?

We are constantly revising, updating, and fixing the Viewer as with the rest of Second Life. There are no plans currently for a complete overhaul of the Viewer.

My question to that reply:

Linden Lab's Project Sunshine Promises Faster Avatar Loading in Second Life - But Can They Deliver?

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Yesterday Linden Lab announced Project Sunshine, a viewer update that is part of an ongoing initiative to identify and address problems with streaming and loading content (like avatars, objects, and textures) in Second Life, known as Project Shining. Several third-party viewers (including Firestorm) are already compatible with Project Sunshine, meaning that you may not necessarily need to change your viewer of choice to see the benefits... Though you'll still need to update. 

But wait! There's more...

Iris Rants: Linden Lab's New Third Party Viewer Policy Could Help Bring the SL Fashion Industry Up to Date

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion

I'm not going to pretend that I completely understand the implications of Linden Lab's new third-party viewer regulations, which prohibit TPVs from altering the shared experience of Second Life. A lot of TPV users and developers are complaining about how it might exclude or hold back new features, but few are talking about how it could also be a good thing, by forcing third-party viewers to keep up with the features already offered by the official SL viewer. This would be especially good for SL's fashion industry, which is often held back by popular but outdated TPVs which haven't kept up with the times. Here's why:

Ophelia's Gaze: How to Make the Most of Tatoos in Viewer 2

Exclusive to NWN, Iris Ophelia's ongoing showcase of all things stylish in SL

It's been a few months, but I'm back, and there's something that I've really been dying to write about: Viewer 2 fashion enhancements. Now, it's no exaggeration to say reactions to Second Life Viewer 2 have been mixed, and it certainly hasn't done much to attract new residents.  But it did bring a couple new developments in avatar fashion that were just enough to win me over: the Tattoo Layer and the Alpha Layer. This week I'll be discussing the Tattoo Layer, which has brought a lot of potential for creativity beyond simple tattoos.  I'm talking eyelashes, freckles, moles and beauty marks, and much more.  Keep reading for tips on what this new layer can do for you.

Second Life 2.0 Awesomeness: Stream Live Webcam Video of Your Real Head on Your Second Life Avatar!

The new Second Life viewer comes with a shared media function which lets you put interactive web content on SL objects. The possibilities, of course, are endless. You can, for instance, put a website with a whiteboard program on it, and collaboratively draw on it. That's pretty ninja. Still more ninja is this hack from Giulio Prisco: Put your live webcam stream on a prim, and put that prim on your avatar's head. Now you have live video of your facial reactions as you interact in Second Life, broadcast into Second Life where your virtual head should be. Can you think of an even more ninja application of the shared media function than that? (Hat tip: Jeanricard Broek.)

In Subtle but Powerful Shift, New Second Life 2.0 Viewer Merges Real Life & Avatar Identity Onto Single Profile Panel

In the new, greatly revamped version of the Second Life viewer out in Beta today, the redesigned user profile window is one of the most striking features, powerful in its shift of visual metaphor:

As you can see above with ColeMarie Soleil's profile, Second Life avatar identity and real world information has now been merged into a single panel. Up until now, the 1st Life information panel has been relegated to a bottom level tab in users' profiles, seeming almost like an afterthought. (Unsurprisingly, many Residents don't even bother adding any details to it.) Now that the new viewer literally merges Second Life and Real World identity together on the same window, and makes them part of the same first impression of an avatar's profile, many more Residents are likely to feel obliged to say something about their real lives, if only some variation of No Comment.

If you're a regular reader to New World Notes, you'll know there's been a fair amount of controversy over the topic of merging real and virtual identities. I personally advocate it as an option architected into the system, and rejoiced when the Lindens announced they'd integrate Facebook Connect as a SL log-ins choice soon. But as the conversation over a post last Friday showed, some Residents believe (and often fear) Linden Lab wants Residents to link their real and Second Life identities together. This single design choice does seem to make a subtle nudge in that direction. It will be interesting to see how it changes identity formation in Second Life in future years.