New Search Tool in Second Life Helps Users Find 3D Objects

Second Life recently released a search tool built on a platform available from Google to help residents find 3D Objects more easily. In the past residents could perform very general searches but did not have the ability to find specific objects or events.

The new tool will list the results of a search in order of relevance as opposed to just listing them alphabetically. Jeska Dzwigalski, who is in charge of community and product development at Linden Lab, explains that the tool also allows residents to search much more specifically. In addition to being able to search for objects, residents can now look for information--about hobbies, for example--in each other's profiles. Dzwigalski says she expects that being able to search profile information will improve Second Life's social features.

Credit: Linden Lab

As Second Life and various other 3D virtual worlds gain popularity, the ability to search for specific 3D objects/events/profiles will only help to improve their social networking and e-commerce capabilities. In order for 3D objects to show up in a search the object must be tagged so the search engine can recognize them.

A good search engine for 3D objects will also become much more important as applications are launched that allow residents of one virtual world to pass into other virtual worlds. The challenge of making a search engine interconnect within various virtual worlds compares to the early days of creating a search engine for the internet.

3Dwalkthroughs.com has been actively speaking with a few virtual world technology companies about integrating our 3D Renderings and 3D Walkthroughs into their virtual worlds. The goal is to produce a much more realistic virtual experience.
In the next few years we believe the lines will truly be blurred between virtual and reality.