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Oddly enough, I was thinking about that today while dealing with a ham in one way so that I can deal with it another soon. That I bring the ham into this is probably not relevant on the first pass - but it is quite relevant.

You have to prepare the ham before you eat it. Whether that means slapping it in the oven or doing some work beforehand - you have to prepare the ham. Linden Lab is preparing their ham.

It seems like years ago that I believed Linden Lab was concerned about the community - when in fact it was only about 1 year ago. They are not out to please this community of business owners... they are trying to define a framework that allows a future. I didn't emphasize 'trying', but that should go unspoken.

Your point about search engines and classifieds is especially well made on me - I've never paid for an advertisement on the internet. I almost did it for Your2ndPlace.com before opening it up, but I didn't want the site to be a flash in the pan - as many advertised sites are. And also - why advertise content in a search engine when, if you have relevant content that is worthwhile, you do seem to stand a better chance with search engine rankings.

The question, of course, is how they see the framework. Google isn't stupid, or has been amazingly lucky. Google wouldn't be bothering with searching a virtual world unless they saw something worthwhile for them. So this is probably part of a negotiation that happened - and may have even been part of why the CTO- whats-his-name - left. A technical difference vs. a business difference is quite prominent there, when you consider it. There is a business case for search engine results as Linden Lab in the direction it is heading - BUT - you are also correct.

One of the issues of virtual worlds, even the overused term 'metanomics' (beginning to catch up with 'Web 2.0'), is the issue of scale. Now, we're talking real taxes in this post as well - and there is a connection.

So, in a way, I see this as an unfortunate normalization of the grey area between Second Life and the 99.99% of the global population that doesn't have an avatar. Its bleeding edge technology meeting Lexus and the Olive Tree through fat pipes of bandwidth.

Will it work? Probably. Why? The people who liked the system as it was, and were willing to fight for changes that would improve it - they are leaving. Mostly quietly. And the new folks coming in have no clue that things used to be different - and in a year's time, I wonder what will be left.

Is it bad? Good? Hell if I know. So I just suggest everyone prepare their hams and keep a weather eye on what is going on along these lines...

I have to write a post on stuff like this, but I'm actually saving up for the New Year. ;-)

Second Life Consultant