James Hill says:

Apple’s quarter is pretty impressive, but otherwise the media is still recovering from their Obama-gasam yesterday. No shock their: Idolatry can wear a person out, just ask Jobs.

FRAGaLOT says:

The second life acquisitions are simple to explain. The two websites in question are 3rd party web pages where you can browse in-game merchandise (clothing, homes, objects, vehicles, whatever users create) for purchase using Linden$ (L$).

It’s not to buy real-world stuff. Though a lot of real-world companies, like Dell for example have in-world presence where you can order Dell PCs and laptops. But that has nothing to do with this story.

Second Life dosen’t have any web shopping built in. In fact in the past year they recently integrated a web browser into the SL client (stripped down mozila). They do have land shopping and land auctions via the web, but nothing for user created content (there.com always did).

Users usually have to visit a virtual store front to buy things. So now I think they want bring it into the world “built-in” and not have a 3rd party do this anymore. I assume this is to remove any potential security risks having a 3rd party with separate logins, that have indirect access to to user accounts on SL (and billing info and so forth).

Also Xstreetsl.com also has their own L$ exchange market (which has better rates), separate from that Second Life already has, called LindeX. With this accusation they will likely close down Xstreet’s L$ trade market and then establish a monopoly.