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Mysterious news on the Millions of Us blog this evening: it seems there’s now a Microsoft island in the virtual world of Second Life. At least, that’s what the »teleport link« in the blog entry implies. And indeed, Microsoft has a build set up on its island devoted to Visual Studio — though it’s not clear what the rest of the island is for. And then there’s the blimp, which Millions of Us clearly wants us to be interested in, especially judging from the teaser video. It’s a pretty nice blimp, actually — although if you get too close to it, it first gives you a security warning, and then teleports you to your home location! More will be revealed at a launch event at 3pm 6pm SL Time (9pm Eastern) on Thursday, 10 May. Until then, it’s interesting to note Microsoft’s presence in Second Life. Various people from Microsoft initiatives like Channel 9 have set up shop in Second Life, and a mad Microsoft marketer chose some interesting spots to make the launch of Vista, but I think this may be the first big Microsoft presence in SL. Hard to tell what it means coming out of such a sprawling company, but it will be interesting to watch. Especially if there’s something good in that blimp.

It was just over a year ago that I first blogged about Etsy, the online community for makers and sellers (and buyers, of course) of crafts of all flavors and kinds. Because they’re here in Brooklyn and because they have their metaversal aspects about them, I thought I’d go and pay them a visit recently. The metaversal aspects of Etsy are mostly the doing of the company’s highly talented Flash programmer, Jared Tarbell, and prove that you don’t necessarily need a Z axis to have a good time. If you’ve poked around the site at all, you’ll have seen hints of them, in the form of the various “ways to shop” found on the front page. (Try time machine, and definitely check out the color page, which is slightly too awesome for its own good.) Where Etsy really comes alive, though, is when you become part of the community and start doing things like attending classes and town halls online. Jared’s cool interfaces give presence to your “avatar” (who’s nothing more than a square uploaded image) in a way few Web page have managed to. And now, Rob Kalin, Etsy’s founder, is thinking about putting Jared’s mad Flash skillz to work in a Flash virtual world that would be an online bazaar for Etsy crafters. More on that (and a couple of other interesting developments) after the jump. (more…)

You might remember Babbage Linden’s SLateIt heads-up display that can be used to flag and tag objects in the virtual world of Second Life, much like the functionality of Digg. Well, Babbage has been hard at work since we first blogged the SLateIt HUD back in February, and now he’s come out with a YouTube video demonstrating the latest version’s feature set. It’s nice stuff, too, usable via either dialogue boxes or the chat line. It even interfaces with the SLateIt Web site, pulling in the last-flagged item on a search and offering you a teleport to its location.

What’s nice about this is that it lets you see how many times an object has been “SLated” without having to leave Second Life. I realize Babbage uses the word “rate” to describe what SLateIt does, but I don’t think that’s accurate, since the only actions possible are a “SLate” (a thumbs-up) or a “hate.” (Objects that are too hated get removed from the list.) Rating seems to me to imply a scale of more than just zero or one. So as usual I’m going off on my own tangent and refer to it as “SLating” — which is more in keeping with the “Digging” model anyway.

The only other things I’d like to see? An open API to both the HUD and the Web site so that people can build their own cool services atop this cool service. (I think the HUD may already be open-source, I’m not sure.) In any case, it’s nice work. With enough people using it, it could become a useful tool.