(2006-09-06) Google Earth Virtual World

Is Google Earth a Virtual World? Will they allow a 2nd copy with fictional spaces? Google Earth general manager John Hanke has said that Google Earth was partly inspired by SnowCrash's MetaVerse. At a recent Silicon Valley conference, he described it as a "3-D virtual world." The result could be that we'll soon populate a virtual version of planet Earth instead of the made-from-scratch metaverses like online games or Second Life. The main element Google Earth is missing today is Ava Tar-s, but at least one observer believes those to be added soon.