UpNext Launching Virtual Neighborhood Search
UpNext is in closed beta, but it sounds like it could be very cool. According to Mashable, it provides “a 3D virtual cityscape, providing users a way to explore cities. UpNext will offer ways to search visually online to find out what’s going on in their city, or cities, on a local level.” Very cool, very metaversal, very 3pointD. The team (seen above), which has just started a blog, is launching the service tonight at Where 2.0. If this works, it could be close to the virtual Williamsburg that the Electric Sheep Company’s Jerry Paffendorf is always on about. It doesn’t sound like it’s avatarized, though we won’t know until tonight. To tell you the truth, I’m a bit surprised that no one has combined these ideas yet: a 3D representation of my neighborhood, links to the Web, and all in an avatarized, multiuser space. Coming soon, I imagine. In the meantime, we look forward to seeing what’s up next for UpNext.
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Is UpNext being administered from someone’s bedroom? That’s even cooler than DestroyTV living in Jerry’s kitchen.
Good call, Rik. Hey UpNext guys, we can install the kitchen counter in the bedroom and make beautiful music together, running the virtual bed from inside a cabinet, and, oh never mind. :) I’m just excited to see what they show here. It does indeed sound like the territory I want to get into with virtual real world locations just lit the heck up with information about what’s happening there, and passing info back and forth. Will be watching for write-ups and videos from tonight.