XplanaZine

Here’s our take on news that matters for Wednesday, March 29. Today’s theme is show me the money , and here are a some links to headlines about technology that is changing the way we live and learn.

• Gaming — In a sign that its has more growth ahead of it, the online alternative reality site Second Life has received an additional $11 million of funding. Second Life, with more than 165,000 users,is an open-ended “metaverse” that allows anyone to join and participate for free and to create and own any kind of clothing, vehicles, buildings or other objects at no cost. Also, another addition to the “games as therapy” front — it seems that playing video games may be good for that affliction known as amblyopia, or “lazy eye.” Finally, governments are taking an increased interest in virtual reality and games.
• Blogging, mediacasting, and online creations — One of the things I’ve been preaching lately is that adoption of multimedia Web production (podcasting and vodcasting) by lower-end users can’t happen until the means of production becomes completely accessible and easy-to-use. It seems to me that Video Egg is definitely a step in the right direction. Video is still complex but Video Egg focuses on easy upload, basic editing, and convenient distribution.

• Handhelds – A new study by Forrester shows that online music sales in Europe are expected to take in more than $4.5 billion annually by 2011. That’s a tenfold increase and will account for more than one third of all music sales on the continent. Mobile music services account for one of the largest factors behind this growth. Also, BusinessWeek has a nice slide show on the next generation of mobile phones. Finally, the market for full track music downloads to mobile devices was twenty times
  larger at the end of 2005 than it was twelve months earlier, a new study from
  ABI Research has revealed.
• Social Networks – Well, it seems that Facebook is finally on the block and looking to go mainstream. Its owners hope to fetch as much as
  $2 billion.
• Technology Talks — In the search wars, Google continues to widen its lead over competitors. Google’s domestic market share rose to 42.3 percent in February, up from 36.3 percent a year earlier, ComScore said. Yahoo’s search market share in the United States fell to 27.6 percent from 31.1 percent a year ago, while Microsoft’s MSN fell to 13.5 percent from 16.3 percent and Time Warner’s America Online fell to 8 percent from 8.9 percent. Also, check out Jimmy Wales’ for-profit venture Wikia Wikia will be using and contributing to the
  href=”http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki” target=”_blank”>MediaWiki wiki platform that Wikipedia uses, but will provide free hosting for people who want to use the Wikia for special interests and topics.