Word on the street has it that Google will soon be sticking its fingers in an area that is currently dominated by Second Life - that is, the virtual world space. This interest of Google will focus particularly in light of the increasing interest of existing environments such as Second Life in addition to the success of Google Earth as well as Google’s very own purchase of the Sketchup technology. It seems that Google’s interest has moved beyond mere talk and is already currently testing their own 3D virtual world technology in a secret experiment at Arizona State University.

A report published on Monday from eMarketer stated that Google is “planning enhancements to Google Earth to let users connect virtually with one another.” It goes without saying that the lack of finances and brainpower are the least of Google’s worries when it comes to creating a vast and powerful 3D virtual world, but the main ingredient to make the entire project a success would be user created content, and there is a possibility even a company like Google could trip up on that potential speedbump. Perhaps Google will utilize its Sketchup service to import vast amounts of precreated 3D content into a Google-run virtual world, the end result would not be the same as the one found in Second Life.

According to a Google spokesman, “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.” Whether this is a confirmation of Google’s attempt at a virtual 3D world remains to be seen, but the final result would probably lean towards an “aye” especially when Google announced a set of APIs on November 5 that will allow developers to “leverage Google’s social graph data.

Source: CNet News