PayPal has partnered with MasterCard to release the PayPal Secure Card. It’s a virtual credit card that generates a unique credit card number for each online transaction. Nothing new here, except as of tomorrow you can download software so you can easily use the service on any site, regardless if they accept Paypal or not. PayPal has been testing the feature with 3 million of its customers this past year.
Trade Shows Going Virtual
Companies like IBM, Cisco, and others are taking their trade shows and conferences virtual. Some, like IBM have used the virtual world Second Life for such events, but virtual trade shows take it a step further. Also, the events are more professional and created for a business environment – there are no actual avatars. However, you can upload a picture, chat with booth representatives, and attend sessions.
Virtual Furniture Thief Arrested
The question of who has metaphysical jurisdiction in virtual worlds is not one so carefully addressed in Amsterdam as police have arrested a virtual criminal. In the Netherlands, at least, theft is theft and has real-world consequences.
Chinese Virtual Economy A Threat To Middleman
The Middleman may never be terminated, but he is cruisin’ for a bruisin’ in the digital age. The latest assault will come, surprisingly, from China, as the government unveils plans to produce a 3D virtual world that allows consumers to order directly from the manufacturer.
Google Earth Won’t Get Virtual London
I’ve seen it: an amazing 3D model of London that was meant to wind up in Google Earth. Only now, due to what I’ll politely call “bureaucratic nonsense,” it won’t.
IBM Sets Virtual World Rules for Employees
IBM’s guidelines for employee bloggers are fairly well known among people who pay attention to such things. Now, IBM has become (as far as I know) the first company to establish a policy for employees who venture into Second Life and other virtual words.
Virtual Sex Bed Caper Leads To Avatar Lawsuit
Just try to read this without feeling like you’re sitting in the back of the classroom, snickering with your buddies at the slightest hint of double entendre – you know, she said jacket, heh heh.
Virtual World Marketing
I’m racing headlong to age fifty, but some days I feel older than others. Lately I have been feeling oh-so-twentieth-century whenever someone talks about marketing campaigns in virtual worlds, such as Second Life. I admit it. I just don’t get it.
I’m not saying that virtual worlds aren’t important. I’m not even saying that marketing in virtual worlds won’t go on just as it does in the real world.
What I don’t get is the kind of marketing that we’re doing in virtual worlds.
Version 5.0 of the Virtual Earth API Available
Over at the MSDN blogs Virtual Earth program manager Andy McGovern has come up with the following update: "we’ve been busy poking around the Virtual Earth forums and blogs, listening to corporate customers and mashuppers alike, and coming up with a list of the top features and fixes that would make the best mapping API even better—better for end users, but mainly better for you, the developer. We think you’ll like what we’ve come up with." The following are just some of the new features:
– import polylines and polygons using GeoRSS feeds.
Gartner: Five Laws For The Virtual World
Virtual worlds are set to take off and by 2011, 80 percent of active Internet users will have a presence in a virtual world according to Gartner.
Gartner analysts are studying the buzz surrounding virtual worlds and the role businesses will have in using them. They recommend that clients research and experiment with virtual worlds but should refrain from pouring large sums of money into them until the environment is stable.