Discussing Second Life and Google’s new SketchUp product in April 2006, I wrote

What stops Google from offering a virtual-earth.google.com that is essentially a coordinate space for users to populate with their models? … [This] could be used to spice up many Google offerings, such as Google Groups’ mail list feature, IM, personal home pages and the nascent markets on Google Base.

Techcruch is now reporting a rumour that Google is turning Google Earth into a virtual world. Given Google’s strengths open standards, I would be be surprised if a Google offering didn’t improve on Second Life’s walled-garden approach. Of course, given that Google paid for YouTube’s community, it wouldn’t surprise me if at some point Google acquired Linden Labs or reached some sort of understanding to ‘join’ the two worlds.

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Some of this is old news, but I had to flush my bloggable bookmarks queue, so here goes…

• Solar Cells reach 40% efficiency. Slashdot notes that this means a sunlit area 265 miles square could meet the world’s energy needs. More practically, developing but energy-poor countries like India may have just found a way out of their energy trap. Solar panel infrastructure on roofs and two-way metering are just some innovations that would let Indian cities improve their residents’ quality of life in an environmentally friendly way.
• “…In the end, America may be stronger for it.” Anti-offshoring lobbyist Scott Irwin shuts down his lobby group. (via)
• Patent laws stifle drug innovation (via)
• The Decline of Violence (via)
• A Middle Ground on Climate, from the NYT. And reaction from RealClimate. (via)
• English: a Celtic language with Germanic words?
• “Extraterrestial Intelligent beings do not exist.”

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