Google’s O3D and VW’s

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Jun 012009
 

GigaOM has an article titled Will O3D Get Google Back Into Virtual Worlds?. Apparently, at the MetaverseU conference (which I usually attend but couldn’t this time), the tech lead for O3D said that his team’s next goal is to fully integrate it into Chrome. By the end of the year.

After his presentation, a group of developers surrounded Kokkevis, peppering him with tech-heavy questions. He told me there weren’t any companies creating MMOs in O3D yet, but he raised the possibility that Google might port Sketchup and Google Earth into O3D, “once we become part of the browser.” (Both have been implemented for MMO-related projects.)

I wrote about O3D back in April; its integration into Chrome is certainly interesting, but Chrome itself has quite a lot of adoption barriers yet. But it’s still highly intriguing tech to keep an eye on. If Sketchup and Google Earth migrate to it, that’s a pair of apps to drive adoption, for sure.

Meanwhile, the same article says Unity has reached 10m installs…

  2 Responses to “Google’s O3D and VW’s”

  1. Chris Lewis says:
    June 1, 2009 at 8:29 pm

    Yeah, I was at MetaverseU, and the Chrome integration issue seemed to rise because people there were big fans of Chrome, and were trying to ascertain the pay-off versus a plugin, like Unity.

    It seems more like a play from Google to have a stronger voice in the formulation of HTML 5 and the Canvas tag than tying people to Chrome. The stated aim is not just to integrate with the Chrome browser, but with every browser, which requires a standardization.

    I would be surprised if we see anything significant based in O3D before HTML 5 gets widely adopted.

  2. Chris Lewis says:
    June 2, 2009 at 2:30 am

    Yeah, I was at MetaverseU, and the Chrome integration issue seemed to rise because people there were big fans of Chrome, and were trying to ascertain the pay-off versus a plugin, like Unity.

    It seems more like a play from Google to have a stronger voice in the formulation of HTML 5 and the Canvas tag than tying people to Chrome. The stated aim is not just to integrate with the Chrome browser, but with every browser, which requires a standardization.

    I would be surprised if we see anything significant based in O3D before HTML 5 gets widely adopted.
    BTW I love your blog!

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