We often hear from inworld organizations and businesses that they need better ways to promote the great experiences, products and services that they offer to Residents. While working to improve other advertising channels in Second Life, such as Classifieds and XstreetSL, we've also been exploring how we can offer additional promotional opportunities that can reach Residents more broadly and effectively.
Advertise Your Business or Organization on Message of the Day Message of the Day (MotD), that brief text message displayed below the progress bar while you're logging into Second Life, is one of the most visible communication channels in Second Life. It's carried by all official Linden Lab Viewers and some third party viewers. For years, Linden Lab has successfully used MotD to promote new products, such as Linden Homes, inworld events and other news items of broad interest to Residents. Last year, we also briefly allowed the big estates to advertise on MotD and the program successfully drove traffic to their websites. Now, as a limited-time trial, we're offering MotD promotional space to a test group of advertisers.
This is a Trial Offer Starting today, we are offering qualified advertisers the opportunity to promote their inworld businesses and organizations using MotD, on a trial basis for about a month. Our goal is to gauge interest from advertisers and get feedback from Residents. We will be responsive to feedback, and the terms of the trial (such as price and duration) will be subject to change based on what we learn. If the trial is successful, then we will make it available to a broader group of advertisers. If the trial does not provide enough value to Residents, advertisers and Linden Lab, then we will revamp or discontinue it.
To start, we will only be accepting a small set of initial participants who meet all of our participation criteria (e.g. account in good standing) and who have a website for their inworld business or organization. In terms of process, potential advertisers will submit a form to Linden Lab that includes their draft MotD message and preferred time block. All messages will be carefully reviewed for adherence to our editorial guidelines. Upon publication, the message will include a link to the URL that they provide.
You can learn more about the cost and terms, and submit an ad request, from the offer description and guidelines on the SL Wiki. A few highlights:
MotD space will be sold in blocks of time.
Since this is a very high visibility communication channel, it is priced accordingly.
Validated nonprofits and educational institutions will receive a discount.
We'll begin scheduling ads once we've received a critical mass of requests.
Your Concerns Are Our Concerns Many of you will be as excited as we are to test this new, much requested, promotional channel. We also know that some of you may be concerned that advertising is going to "take over" Second Life. We share that concern, and it's not what any of us want. We have given this a lot of thought, and the terms and editorial guidelines are carefully designed to encourage quality MotD ads. If we decide to continue this offer after the test period, then we will consider adding refinements like better targeting by language or interests and the ability to opt-out of ads. We believe that additional features, along with good stewardship, can make advertising a benefit to advertisers that also enhances the Second Life experience for all Residents. For now, let me emphasize a few important things about the MotD trial offer:
We will always make it very clear which messages are from advertisers and which are from Linden Lab. Paid advertising will be marked with "Advertisement."
We've set up strict editorial guidelines and a review process to ensure that these promotional messages are engaging, helpful, and attractive to Residents.
If the program isn't successful -- based on advertiser results and Resident feedback -- then we'll modify or end the trial.
Learn More on the Second Life Wiki If you would like to participate in this trial, then please read the offer description, where you'll also find a link to submit your ad request. Additional information about this offer is also available to all in the FAQ.
Requests will be acted on in a first-come first-served basis, so send yours in now!
Give us your thoughts about the MotD advertising trial offer in this thread.
If you have a Linden Home you have probably noticed a control panel cunningly placed on an inside wall of your house. Today these panels will be enabled, allowing the home owner to use the Linden Home Control Panel -- a web page that you can use to configure various aspects of your Linden Home.
Since the launch of Linden Homes on February 17, we've seen nearly 13,000 people take up residence in a Linden Home. The response we've seen to the program so far has been beyond even our expectations, leading us to double the number of homes that we originally made available. And there are more to come! Our early homeowners love having a home base from which to explore the online world, and a safe, private place to entertain and socialize -- all for no additional cost beyond a premium membership.
One piece of early feedback we got from a large number of Residents was the desire to be able to customize their houses more. Partly in response to that feedback, we've now turned on our Control Panel feature, giving you a range of options for making your home your own.
The exact changes you can make will vary depending on which house you have, but will include features like lighting, curtains, and texture choices for the various surfaces of your home. Want a different roof texture? Just click! Need to change the color of the living room wall? Click again! We're hoping that the Control Panel will evolve over time to give you ever more functionality, but to begin with we need to test the basics -- hence this is a Beta. If you have any problems using it, please do let us know.
For full instructions on using the Linden Home Control Panel, click here.
Once the Beta period is over, and the Control Panels are proven to be working reliably, we will work on packaging up these scripts and explaining how they work so that Residents can take advantage of the technologies we have developed for this project in their own homes and estates, and no doubt extend them in ways that we haven't even dreamed!
Lastly, as promised, the base textures for the various themes will be made available to all Residents today. At each of the different Hub areas you will find a box of textures for that theme, so if you want the Elderglen textures, please visit the Elderglen Hub! Texture kiosks for each theme are available at the following SLurls:
I'm very happy to announce that, as a core feature of the new Viewer 2 Beta, Second Life Search has been redesigned inside and out to make finding the people, places and content you're looking for easier than ever before. We've revamped the interface, overhauled what's happening under the hood, and refocused our work on Web-standard tools and methodologies that have not only improved our ability to bring you more relevant search results, but also made us faster on our feet as a development team. And, we've been building a first-class Search team--from Yahoo!, eBay, Google, and Amazon--to bring the best of search and advertising services to Second Life. We've been hard at work improving Second Life Search, and we're excited to share some of the work that we've recently completed in conjunction with the new viewer.
Second Life Search, as part of Viewer 2, now includes:
A New and Improved User Experience: The first thing that you'll notice about search in Viewer 2 is that it's got a whole new look and feel. We've reorganized the interface to be more intuitive and to use filtering and sorting techniques common to search on the Web. We've also cleared away some of the legacy UI found in Viewer 1.23 to create a clean hierarchy of information and actions. One of our biggest goals in this redesign was to make the search interface more inviting for new Residents while still preserving many of the search options that current Residents had become accustomed to. For example, in the Viewer 2 Beta, there is now only one location for conducting a "Places" search (rather than a tab and a filter as found in Viewer 1.23), and that "Places" search can be filtered and sorted to achieve similar results as in Viewer 1.23.
A Robust Search Infrastructure: We've also redesigned the search infrastructure to be more robust and nimble. These changes, although maybe not as immediately visible, are a major step forward as we work towards innovating more rapidly and being responsive to Resident feedback. Previously, Search was hard coded in the XUI language of Viewer 1.23; now, search uses HTML on top of Django Web services and can be developed independently of Viewer 2. This gives us greater speed and flexibility as we develop additional search features, advertising products, and bug fixes.
Google Search Technology: As we all know, Google's relevance algorithms are the defacto industry standard on the Internet. In Viewer 1.23, the Google Search Appliances (GSA) served results to the "All" and "Group" search tabs for years. For Search in Viewer 2, we have expanded our use of the GSAs, and they now provide the first set of results for most search types. (Advanced search users can still access Linden Lab's proprietary search tools through category filters and sorts.) Google alone cannot provide the best results for Second Life Residents, however. So, the Search Team is continually adjusting how the GSAs work in order to provide the highest quality, most relevant results within Second Life.
Enhancement to Classified Advertising: Second Life business owners can benefit from a significant change to classified advertising within Second Life Search. Now, we can place classifieds alongside more searches, and advertisers will have a better opportunity to be found by relevant buyers. In Viewer 2, potential ad exposure (i.e., the number of search requests that serve ads) will increase to 100% of initial searches, whereas in Viewer 1.23 classified ads were only shown alongside search results in the All and Group tabs. Additionally, we have increased the number of featured classifieds from nine to 12 on the Search homepage (which appears when you click the magnifying glass or type CTRL-F).
The bottom line is that the new Second Life Search benefits everyone within the Second Life economic ecosystem--most importantly business and Residents--as it plays a crucial role connecting inworld buyers and sellers. The more that Second Life Search can help Residents, particularly new Residents, find compelling content, communities and experiences, then the higher the probability they will be come active, long-term Residents. Plus, more Residents mean more potential customers for inworld businesses. So, go download the Viewer 2 Beta, try the new and improved Second Life Search and let us know what you think.
Searching Tips
To browse the features in the Find window (including Search, Destination Guide and Classifieds), click the magnifying glass icon in the Search field at the top right of the Viewer 2 navigation bar. To initiate a search, type a keyword in the Search field on the Viewer navigation bar.
Once you've initiated a search from the Viewer navigation bar, the Find window will open with an initial set of relevance-ranked results. You can then narrow your results with Category filters and organize the list with Sorting options. Your search terms are now carried from one category to the next, with no need to re-type!
And, if something breaks or you're really stuck, then contactSupportand we're happy to help.
Edit to Post:
For more details, visit the Search Release Notes wiki. We'll update this for each release with highlights of what got done and a list of known issues we are working to resolve (e.g., "Events and Land Sales are not easily browsable or searchable in current UI").
Thanks for your feedback in the comments. I've posted a summary and responses below.
The Viewer 2 Beta is finally here, and with it comes a whole host of amazing improvements and new features. There?s so much to be excited about that it?s impossible (and unnecessary!) to pick a favorite. But -- if I really had to pick -- I?d choose Shared Media, since I'm the Product Manager for Shared Media. So, let me tell you about it.
Shared Media Brings the Web Into Second Life
Second Life Shared Media, a new Viewer 2 capability, makes sharing standard Web-based media in Second Life easy and seamless. It enables content creators to make more compelling, interactive experiences. Basically, Shared Media brings the Internet inworld.
For the more technically inclined, what this means is that you can now put media textures on any prim in Second Life. More specifically, the viewer uses WebKit to create a fully interactive, dynamic texture from a Web URL. This even includes support for Web-browser plug-ins, like the Adobe Flash Player. And, you can place dozens of them on the same region. (We still don't know what the upper limits are. I'm sure that you'll let us know.)
A World of New Experiences and Businesses Possible
By seamlessly integrating the Web into Second Life, Shared Media unleashes a new wave of creativity and new business opportunities. Imagine the richness of a SL store with interactive signs and displays. Think about Flash-based games, theaters, and innovative Web-based services appearing inworld. Display your Twitter feed on the front of your house! (Okay, don't.) Build a HUD to read your email inworld. Interact with walls that encourage graffiti or use your signature to sign guest books. Educators and their students can now interact in even more immersive classrooms. For the enterprise community, online collaboration tools (such as Google Docs, EtherPad, Webex, and Acrobat Web Connect) combine with the power of Second Life to make working inworld much easier and more powerful.
You're in Control of Shared Media
Viewer 2 introduces a new UI for controlling Shared Media. Shared Media authors have the option to offer a 2D menu bar (similar to a browser-like URL bar) that will appear in front of a Shared Media object when any Resident mouses over it. Also, a new Nearby Media control will enable Residents to more easily control what media is allowed to play.
Web Skills Will Drive New Inworld Building Techniques
There are also new Second Life build features for Shared Media: assigning URLs to objects and faces, controlling auto-play, auto-scale, size settings, etc. With Shared Media, SL building now extends well beyond SL into the vast and varied skill set of Web development. Suddenly, skills like PHP, SQL, ActionScript, Apache and FMS can be used to create compelling inworld content. Flash and Flash Media Server (FMS) become particularly useful tools for creating animated, interactive Shared Media that can be kept in sync. Flash media server hosting services, such as Influxis, offer low-cost hosting.
Synchronicity is Content- and Context-Specific
Behind the scenes, Shared Media is different. Second Life always stays synchronized for all Residents. That is, the simulation takes place on our servers, and each person's viewer renders their perspective on that simulation -- everyone is looking at the same thing. Shared Media, on the other hand, can look different to different people -- sometimes. Everyone?s instance of the Shared Media is always presenting the same URL. However, not everything will stay in perfect sync unless the content is specially designed to do that. For example, a simple Web browsing session will keep the pages synchronized, but not the position of the scroll bars. We may both be looking at the same Web page on the same inworld object, but I might be looking at the top portion, while you might be viewing what's below the fold.
Consider a URL that doesn't always serve the exact same page, perhaps a Web page that displays a random background color each time it loads. If an inworld object's surface displayed that page, I might see a green background while you might see a blue one. Even more striking: if an inworld object's surface was pointed at a site with user login like Gmail, you and I could both log into it, and we'd be looking at our own inboxes, not at each other's.
What?s really cool is that sites that are specifically designed for synchronous collaboration, like EtherPad, for instance, will stay in perfect sync. So if it's the intention, it is possible to design content that uses a back-end server to stay perfectly synchronized in all cases.
In short, synchronicity is content- and context-specific, making possible a world of new applications and interactions.
We Look Forward to Your Feedback and Creations
With this release of Shared Media, we?re just at the starting line; we need your feedback. Please post your thoughts and experiences on Shared Media to the Viewer 2 Beta Forums. And if you build cool stuff and want to share it with us for inclusion in a Shared Media Showcase, please let us know in comments.
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