Amazon.com Amazonians Headed to SL
Well, that was an eye-opener. Amazon.com’s Werner Vogels just told the Supernova conference that the shopping site [well, some of its employees, anyway] is considering a move into the virtual world of Second Life. “There is a group of Amazonians in Second Life,” Vogels said, “and we are building a bridge between Amazon Web services and Second Life so you can go into Second Life and actually try things on there and buy them. There are people who want to use Amazon as a platform to buy and sell things in Second Life.” It’s not clear how far along the effort is or how much official support it has in the company ([see below], Vogels was speaking in response to a question from the audience), but it is clear that people at major Web-based retailers and eCommerce portals have begun to look at SL as a commercial platform. Watch out, SLBoutique? Time will tell. Stay tuned for more reports.
[Update:] Vogels, who is VP of worldwide architecture and chief technology officer at Amazon, tells me that there is indeed an “Amazonians” group in SL composed of Amazon employees, and that they are trying to see what it would take to create a Web-services bridge between the virtual world and the shopping site. The effort is not being done under the auspices of the company, he says.
Vogels and the other Amazonians are interested to see whether Amazon could support this kind of commerce. “If we are truly a platform, we should be able to do this,” he said. “These kinds of extreme uses can teach you a lot about your platform.” Vogels admits that SL’s Web hooks may not currently be the perfect tools to support such a bridge, but he predicts success within six months or so. This would be a very interesting development both for SL residents and for SL itself. Imagine shopping for a dress on Amazon and having a prim dress returned as part of your search results. The potential for Amazon partner revenue accruing to sales of virtual items is interesting as well. As I say above, stay tuned.
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Wow, great scoop, Mark! I’d love ot see how they’d implement this bridge Vogels is talking about. I look forward to more news!
Mark, you heard it right this is a completely grassroots effort without any coporate support. Just a bunch of engineers who are passionate about Amazon and Second Life, and who are interested in seeing how they can bridge these worlds together. With Amazon as a platform that should be too hard.
Imagine an Amazon bookshop with the facility to browse books and sit in a little cafe to discuss them with like-minded people. :)
Ok, that’s really hot.
I do a lot of shopping on amazon. If there was an in-world shopping center featuring on sale items from Amazon, I’d be all over that. And I love the idea of interacting with other residents while I’m shopping for RL items.
Much more interesting than American Apparel in SL at least. Who needs a virtual polo shirt?
What’s just as interesting about this to me is the prospect of having SL items for sale on Amazon.com.
[…] 3pointD are reporting on the recent news from Supernova 2006 about pioneering ‘Amazonians’. Some Second Life users, who also happen to be Amazon employees, are exploring the potential of “a bridge between Amazon Web services and Second Life so you can go into Second Life and actually try things on there and buy them”. Interesting news indeed. […]
[…] I’ve been out of the loop for a week so I’m a bit behind, but I just read about Amazon investigating the possibilities of a bridge between Second Life and their products. This is where it gets interesting as a business is looking at this as a direct extension, a new market, for an already established company. That is where people and companies need to look. It’ll never be a replacement for a line of business, but rather another arm that can reach out and get more people. […]
SLAmazonia On The Horizon?…
Interesting bit of news over on the 3pointD blog. It appears that a group of Amazon employees are attempting to link Second Life to Amazon. From the 3pointD entry (Link):
Well, that was an eye-opener. Amazon.com’s Werner Vogels just told the Superno…
Watch Avatars Dancing in SecondLife…
On June 9th, I wrote a post, “Dancing in the Second Life Virtual World.” In this post, I wrote about Rik Panganiban’s thoughts about the limitations of avatar dancing in such virtual environments. He followed-up with a comment where he……
[…] 27. Juni 2006 Wer von einem virtuellen Einkaufsbummel spricht, könnte das bald wörtlich meinen: Laut einem Posting auf 3pointD.com will ein Team bei Amazon die Artikel des Shops in das Onlinespiel Second Life integrieren. Im Gegensatz zu dem Shop von American Apparel, der bereits seit längerem virtuelle Güter in der virtuellen Welt verkauft, soll man in dem Amazon-Shop reale Güter erstehen können. Anschließend wird dann natürlich auch reales Geld vom Konto abgebucht - Amazon hofft vermutlich, dass einige User das vergessen werden ;-) […]
[…] My bet: a business like Amazon - someone with real muscle - will establish a significant presence in Second Life within the next couple of months. It’s not hard to reach this conclusion if you read what Business Week’s Rob Hof is saying. […]
[…] Amazon CTO Werner Vogels revealed that a group of Amazon engineers is looking at ways to use Amazon Web services to bridge Amazon with Second Life. According to a comment by Vogels at the virtual-worlds blog 3pointD.com, it’s not an official project. But it’s no secret that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is an investor in Second Life creator Linden Lab, so I don’t doubt those engineers will come up with something. […]
Amazon in Second Life…
I promised at Supernova I would give an update on the integration of Amazon.com (through Amazon.com E-Commerce Web Services) into Second Life: Jeff Barr has the scoop and demonstrates it on the Amazon Web Services Weblog. As expected it was a complete…
[…] 3pointD report that Amazon employees are working to bridge the gap between their real-world shopping platform and SL. Quick summary on Eightbar. […]
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