Second Earth

You are here? In this imaginary composite, the virtual world of Second Life--as embodied in the author's avatar--meets the real world of Google Earth.
Credit: Technology Review

Multimedia

Once you've downloaded the appropriate software from Second Life and Google Earth, many locations mentioned in this story can be accessed using special links in the copy. Links saying "SLurl" will open a Second Life viewer. Links saying "Google Earth location" will open Google Earth and spin the virtual globe to the proper coordinates.

Communications

July/August 2007
By Wade Roush

The World Wide Web will soon be absorbed into the World Wide Sim: an environment combining elements of Second Life and Google Earth.

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This version of the story contains additional content that was not published in the print edition of the magazine. This bonus content appears in special boxes found throughout the story. The print version of the story can be found here.

A thunderhead towers at knee level, throwing tiny lightning bolts at my shoes. I'm standing--rather, my avatar is standing--astride a giant map [SLurl] of the continental United States, and southern Illinois, at my feet, is evidently getting a good April shower.

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