A Domain Yahoo Name is very similar to an address forwarding service. The Domain is the address people type in their web browser to get to your web site.The Domain Yahoo Name then points to the "real" address that contains your web site.
How to I choose a domain name?
Your Yahoo domain name is your address on the Web. It's the vehicle that helps friends, associates or customers find you or your business online. When you pick your Yahoo domain name, keep the following tips in mind: Yahoo Domain names can only use letters, numbers, and hyphens ("-"). Spaces and other symbols, like underscores, are not allowed, and domains cannot begin or end with a hyphen. Yahoo Domain names are not case sensitive. They can be between 2 and 63 total characters, not including the domain extension.
Below, you can find keyword to find Yahoo domainyahoo domain nameyahoo domain registeryahoo domain searchyahoo domain name registrationregister domain name with yahooyahoo web domainyahoo buy domainyahoo domain control paneldomain yahoo web business emaildomain free name yahoodomain name transfer yahoodomain name with yahoo web hosting
"According to PC Magazine "domain registration through Yahoo! Small Business is the easiest."
Yahoo! Domains allows you to register a domain name for up to 5 years and offers all of the major domain name extensions at affordable prices. Here is a complete list of available extensions and their requirements.
Yahoo! Domains FeaturesThe most popular domain name extensions(.com, ,net, .org, .biz, .info, .us)24-hour toll-free customer supportDomain name registration terms from 1-5 yearsEasy-to-use control panel with DNS managementDomain forwarding so you can point to an existing siteEmail forwarding to a free Yahoo! email addressBonus starter web page to post online until you are ready for a web site
duminică, 25 noiembrie 2007
sâmbătă, 24 noiembrie 2007
Yahoo 'Domain Keys'
Yahoo this week announced they're working on an open-source software that uses public key cryptography to digitally sign e-mail and verify its origins. Dubbed "DomainKeys", the project is getting some air-time - the launch date is vague, sometime in 2004, and the software will be compatible with Sendmail, qmail and postfix. E-mail passing through blessed servers will be tagged with a cryptographic signature as it passes through the mail server. Email clients or en-route mail servers can then check the e-mail's header, and compare it to a public key shared via DNS zonefiles to confirm authenticity, presumably dropping the message if something is wrong.
Brad Garlinghouse, VP of communication products at Yahoo, says the project is part of a larger push. He argues that once "we actually have credibility and confidence that the E-mail that said it came from Yahoo.com actually did come from Yahoo.com, we then can use other intelligence and filters ... so that an individual user can, with confidence and effectiveness, determine what actually ends up in his or her in-box." "What we're proposing here is to re-engineer the way the internet works with regard to the authentication of e-mail," said Garlinghouse to Reuters."So What?" came the response from technology websites and bloggers in unison for much of the week. Cryptonomicon wonders if there's more meat to the idea hidden somewhere in the wings: "By itself, this will do nothing to authenticate users or cut down on spam. It will simply increase the average entropy of messages being transmitted across the Internet.".I'm not sure about the criticism that this initiative will do "nothing" to reduce spam: once you have a system for tagging messages and checking authenticity upon receipt, the next step (blessed lists of domains allowed to send one email) becomes possible. The worldwide email system slowly morphs to become like a huge VPN, with checkpoints to get on. Even though hijacked PCs could still be used to inject spam ostensibly under the identity of the hijacked user, such a standard would force ALL such spam to be directed into the network this way. Moreover, the spammers would have to use on-ramps from blessed servers from big domain names, rather than "somebody's hacked server in china". The isolation of spam in such a way, if such a key system was widely adopted, would encourage providers to do more to shut-out compromised subscribers PCs.Google's Shuman Ghosemajumder, wonders that if the idea is to create momentum for an identity verification standard, why does Yahoo seem to be traveling the road alone up to this point? Yahoo programmer (though not working on the DomainKeys project) Jeremy Zawodny agrees, noting via his blog that "it seems a lot more like another lone cowboy going after the bandits.".Yahoo themselves used the King-Maker remark in the title of this news story, in a clear reference to possible future initiatives by a certain large company to lay down possibly more tightly held infrastructure based around passport (word © 2003 microsoft), that could one day lead to everyone paying a penny to an MS authentication network if they wish to send a message. By making this thing open-source from the start, Yahoo escapes criticism that they may be trying to own it all.But without Yahoo's recently announced anti-spam partners AOL and MSN on board along for the ride, does the authentication system stand a chance? I think they deserve to be heard out.
Brad Garlinghouse, VP of communication products at Yahoo, says the project is part of a larger push. He argues that once "we actually have credibility and confidence that the E-mail that said it came from Yahoo.com actually did come from Yahoo.com, we then can use other intelligence and filters ... so that an individual user can, with confidence and effectiveness, determine what actually ends up in his or her in-box." "What we're proposing here is to re-engineer the way the internet works with regard to the authentication of e-mail," said Garlinghouse to Reuters."So What?" came the response from technology websites and bloggers in unison for much of the week. Cryptonomicon wonders if there's more meat to the idea hidden somewhere in the wings: "By itself, this will do nothing to authenticate users or cut down on spam. It will simply increase the average entropy of messages being transmitted across the Internet.".I'm not sure about the criticism that this initiative will do "nothing" to reduce spam: once you have a system for tagging messages and checking authenticity upon receipt, the next step (blessed lists of domains allowed to send one email) becomes possible. The worldwide email system slowly morphs to become like a huge VPN, with checkpoints to get on. Even though hijacked PCs could still be used to inject spam ostensibly under the identity of the hijacked user, such a standard would force ALL such spam to be directed into the network this way. Moreover, the spammers would have to use on-ramps from blessed servers from big domain names, rather than "somebody's hacked server in china". The isolation of spam in such a way, if such a key system was widely adopted, would encourage providers to do more to shut-out compromised subscribers PCs.Google's Shuman Ghosemajumder, wonders that if the idea is to create momentum for an identity verification standard, why does Yahoo seem to be traveling the road alone up to this point? Yahoo programmer (though not working on the DomainKeys project) Jeremy Zawodny agrees, noting via his blog that "it seems a lot more like another lone cowboy going after the bandits.".Yahoo themselves used the King-Maker remark in the title of this news story, in a clear reference to possible future initiatives by a certain large company to lay down possibly more tightly held infrastructure based around passport (word © 2003 microsoft), that could one day lead to everyone paying a penny to an MS authentication network if they wish to send a message. By making this thing open-source from the start, Yahoo escapes criticism that they may be trying to own it all.But without Yahoo's recently announced anti-spam partners AOL and MSN on board along for the ride, does the authentication system stand a chance? I think they deserve to be heard out.
vineri, 23 noiembrie 2007
Fuel Freedom International
The number one topic that people are discussing around the world is the high price for gasoline and diesel. A primary factor affecting the economy of a nation, a state, a city, or even a family, is the price of fuel. Families cut back on shopping for new products because their budgets are impacted by the rising gas prices. It costs more to fly because a “fuel surcharge” is added to the ticket cost, thereby causing some people to postpone their trip to grandma’s, or delay their vacation. Businesses are also impacted because the cost of sales rises with the cost of fuel… Municipalities are adversely affected as well. These actions are not limited to the United States, but are global in scope.
marți, 20 noiembrie 2007
Freddie Mac shares dive after posting loss
Freddie Mac ,the second-largest U.S. mortgage finance company, on Tuesday posted a wider third-quarter loss and said it may slash its dividend and raise new capital as it works through what it called an "extremely difficult year" for housing and credit markets.
Freddie shares plummeted 23 percent to an 11-year low after reporting a net loss of $2 billion as falling home prices and tighter credit conditions increased the number of borrowers defaulting on their mortgages.
Freddie said it has hired Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers to help it study raising capital in the "very near term" as its soaring losses force it to raise cash to ensure it has enough capital to meet regulatory requirements. It may also cut its fourth quarter dividend by 50 percent.
If its capital fell below required levels, the company may be forced to reduce the size of its mortgage portfolio.
The gloomy housing market is likely to continue to be a drag on Freddie in the near-term, said Charles Lieberman, chief investment officer of Advisors Capital Management LLC in Paramus, New Jersey, which owns Freddie shares.
"I suspect it will continue to worsen in terms of actual defaults," he said.
Freddie's dismal report dragged shares of larger rival Fannie Mae down about 20 percent.
Buddy Piszel, Freddie's chief financial officer, said the housing market will hurt the company's bottom line for some time even though the company mostly deals in low-risk home loans offered to strong borrowers. "Certainly, when housing markets deteriorate, that has an impact. We clearly will incur higher costs with markets being what they are," said Piszel.
The $2 billion loss, or $3.29 a share, compared with a loss of $715 million, or $1.17 a share, in the year-ago period. Wall Street analysts, on average, had expected Freddie Mac to report a third quarter loss of $2.16 per share.
More of Freddie Mac's home loans are heading into foreclosure, which has forced the company to increase its provisions for failing loans. Freddie said Tuesday it had put aside $1.2 billion for credit losses and had begun to increase fees for guaranteeing the payment on home loans.
Freddie also said the value of its net assets decreased by about $8.1 billion in the third quarter.
The cost to insure Freddie's bonds against default rose to a record 65 basis points after its earnings, according to data from Markit which dates from 2004. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are chartered by Congress and investors treat them as if they have an implied government guarantee.
Piszel said that fresh capital would be used to maintain a cushion against losses. Freddie also wants the capital to leave it with some flexibility to increase its mortgage investment holdings, he said.
"Given where credit is heading, given how we performed in 2007, we believe that we need to raise capital," Piszel said.
The company said in a statement that it might sell preferred stock to increase its capital. Fitch Ratings, however, said it may cut Freddie's AA- preferred stock rating following news it was looking at raising additional capital.
Partly to increase its capital reserves, Freddie sharply shrank its holdings of mortgage securities in October and pushed them further below a growth limit set by the regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. Freddie Mac's retained mortgage portfolio dropped by an annualized 16.9 percent rate in October to $703.1 billion, after decreasing significantly the previous month.
Freddie shares hit an 11-year low while Fannie Mae shares reached a 12-year trough in early trading. Freddie shares are down 58 percent year-to-date, compared with a 48 percent drop in the KBW Mortgage Finance Index over the same period.
Freddie shares plummeted 23 percent to an 11-year low after reporting a net loss of $2 billion as falling home prices and tighter credit conditions increased the number of borrowers defaulting on their mortgages.
Freddie said it has hired Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers to help it study raising capital in the "very near term" as its soaring losses force it to raise cash to ensure it has enough capital to meet regulatory requirements. It may also cut its fourth quarter dividend by 50 percent.
If its capital fell below required levels, the company may be forced to reduce the size of its mortgage portfolio.
The gloomy housing market is likely to continue to be a drag on Freddie in the near-term, said Charles Lieberman, chief investment officer of Advisors Capital Management LLC in Paramus, New Jersey, which owns Freddie shares.
"I suspect it will continue to worsen in terms of actual defaults," he said.
Freddie's dismal report dragged shares of larger rival Fannie Mae down about 20 percent.
Buddy Piszel, Freddie's chief financial officer, said the housing market will hurt the company's bottom line for some time even though the company mostly deals in low-risk home loans offered to strong borrowers. "Certainly, when housing markets deteriorate, that has an impact. We clearly will incur higher costs with markets being what they are," said Piszel.
The $2 billion loss, or $3.29 a share, compared with a loss of $715 million, or $1.17 a share, in the year-ago period. Wall Street analysts, on average, had expected Freddie Mac to report a third quarter loss of $2.16 per share.
More of Freddie Mac's home loans are heading into foreclosure, which has forced the company to increase its provisions for failing loans. Freddie said Tuesday it had put aside $1.2 billion for credit losses and had begun to increase fees for guaranteeing the payment on home loans.
Freddie also said the value of its net assets decreased by about $8.1 billion in the third quarter.
The cost to insure Freddie's bonds against default rose to a record 65 basis points after its earnings, according to data from Markit which dates from 2004. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are chartered by Congress and investors treat them as if they have an implied government guarantee.
Piszel said that fresh capital would be used to maintain a cushion against losses. Freddie also wants the capital to leave it with some flexibility to increase its mortgage investment holdings, he said.
"Given where credit is heading, given how we performed in 2007, we believe that we need to raise capital," Piszel said.
The company said in a statement that it might sell preferred stock to increase its capital. Fitch Ratings, however, said it may cut Freddie's AA- preferred stock rating following news it was looking at raising additional capital.
Partly to increase its capital reserves, Freddie sharply shrank its holdings of mortgage securities in October and pushed them further below a growth limit set by the regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. Freddie Mac's retained mortgage portfolio dropped by an annualized 16.9 percent rate in October to $703.1 billion, after decreasing significantly the previous month.
Freddie shares hit an 11-year low while Fannie Mae shares reached a 12-year trough in early trading. Freddie shares are down 58 percent year-to-date, compared with a 48 percent drop in the KBW Mortgage Finance Index over the same period.
duminică, 4 noiembrie 2007
Wall St Week Ahead: For stocks, Fed chief in the spotlight
Investors banking on more interest-rate cuts may get some clues about what comes next from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who testifies before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress on Thursday.
"Clearly anything that he says has the potential to move the markets," said Matt Kaufler, portfolio manager at Clover Capital Management Inc., in Rochester, New York.
After the Fed cut interest rates for the second time this year on Wednesday, stocks rallied. But one day later, the gains were erased as the view took hold that further cuts were not in the cards.
With concerns about a credit crunch and losses in subprime mortgages refusing to go away, brokerage downgrades knocked several financial stocks lower.
Investors will be anxiously awaiting the quarterly results of American International Group Inc , due after the market close on Wednesday. The insurer's stock has been hitting 52-week lows on rumors that the results will include losses in subprime securities.
For the past week, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 1.53 percent and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> declined 1.67 percent. But the Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> rose 0.22 percent.
Despite the turmoil, stocks are still higher for the year, with the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite leading the way. For the year so far, the blue-chip Dow average is up 9.08 percent, while the S&P 500 is up 6.44 percent and the Nasdaq is up 16.36 percent.
TECHS PROP UP THE MARKET
One of the key technology bellwethers, Cisco Systems Inc , the largest U.S. communications equipment maker, will report earnings on Wednesday.
Scott Neuendorf, an analyst at Hester Capital Management in Austin, Texas, said he expects Cisco to report higher earnings of 36 cents per share, in line with the consensus forecast.
He said Cisco and other tech companies have benefited from diversification of revenues, including revenues derived from overseas sources.
"The tech sector has been kind of pulling up the whole market," said John Praveen, chief investment strategist for Prudential International Investments Advisers LLC in Newark, New Jersey.
Praveen noted that Microsoft Corp helped lift the market after it reported better-than-expected earnings last month. Intel Corp and Apple Inc have also reported earnings that beat consensus forecasts.
Other companies due to report earnings this week include Sun Microsystems Inc on Monday, News Corp on Wednesday and Walt Disney Co on Thursday. After Thursday's sharp decline in stocks, the three major U.S. stock indexes rebounded Friday morning following news that October nonfarm payrolls grew by 166,000 -- more than twice as much as the consensus forecast. But the gains evaporated on new concerns about financial companies exposed to subprime losses.
"I think we're going to continue to have volatility as the market reacts to certain data points," said Jim Fehrenbach, head of Nasdaq trading at Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis.
He said the market is searching for a general theme that can be the catalyst for further gains.
CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE
"You have a crisis of confidence right now with Merrill Lynch and Citigroup," Kaufler said. "Both firms have a leadership void to fill."
Merrill Lynch is searching for a new chief executive after the sudden retirement of E. Stanley O'Neal following a huge write-off, and Citi's Charles Prince has been under pressure from shareholders unhappy with a falling stock price.
The week's schedule of economic news is on the thin side, but there are still some significant reports on tap.
On Monday, the Institute for Supply Management reports on the service sector of the economy. The group's index of October activity is expected to fall to 54.0 from 54.8 in September, according to the median forecast of economists polled by Reuters.
On Friday, the Commerce Department reports on international trade for September. The monthly deficit is expected to rise to $58.5 billion from $57.6 billion in August.
The week will see data on productivity and unit labor costs, wholesale inventories, consumer credit, import and export prices, and the first November reading from the Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers. The consensus forecast is for the consumer sentiment index to decline to 80.0 from 80.9 in the final October survey.
"Clearly anything that he says has the potential to move the markets," said Matt Kaufler, portfolio manager at Clover Capital Management Inc., in Rochester, New York.
After the Fed cut interest rates for the second time this year on Wednesday, stocks rallied. But one day later, the gains were erased as the view took hold that further cuts were not in the cards.
With concerns about a credit crunch and losses in subprime mortgages refusing to go away, brokerage downgrades knocked several financial stocks lower.
Investors will be anxiously awaiting the quarterly results of American International Group Inc , due after the market close on Wednesday. The insurer's stock has been hitting 52-week lows on rumors that the results will include losses in subprime securities.
For the past week, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 1.53 percent and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> declined 1.67 percent. But the Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> rose 0.22 percent.
Despite the turmoil, stocks are still higher for the year, with the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite leading the way. For the year so far, the blue-chip Dow average is up 9.08 percent, while the S&P 500 is up 6.44 percent and the Nasdaq is up 16.36 percent.
TECHS PROP UP THE MARKET
One of the key technology bellwethers, Cisco Systems Inc , the largest U.S. communications equipment maker, will report earnings on Wednesday.
Scott Neuendorf, an analyst at Hester Capital Management in Austin, Texas, said he expects Cisco to report higher earnings of 36 cents per share, in line with the consensus forecast.
He said Cisco and other tech companies have benefited from diversification of revenues, including revenues derived from overseas sources.
"The tech sector has been kind of pulling up the whole market," said John Praveen, chief investment strategist for Prudential International Investments Advisers LLC in Newark, New Jersey.
Praveen noted that Microsoft Corp helped lift the market after it reported better-than-expected earnings last month. Intel Corp and Apple Inc have also reported earnings that beat consensus forecasts.
Other companies due to report earnings this week include Sun Microsystems Inc on Monday, News Corp on Wednesday and Walt Disney Co on Thursday. After Thursday's sharp decline in stocks, the three major U.S. stock indexes rebounded Friday morning following news that October nonfarm payrolls grew by 166,000 -- more than twice as much as the consensus forecast. But the gains evaporated on new concerns about financial companies exposed to subprime losses.
"I think we're going to continue to have volatility as the market reacts to certain data points," said Jim Fehrenbach, head of Nasdaq trading at Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis.
He said the market is searching for a general theme that can be the catalyst for further gains.
CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE
"You have a crisis of confidence right now with Merrill Lynch and Citigroup," Kaufler said. "Both firms have a leadership void to fill."
Merrill Lynch is searching for a new chief executive after the sudden retirement of E. Stanley O'Neal following a huge write-off, and Citi's Charles Prince has been under pressure from shareholders unhappy with a falling stock price.
The week's schedule of economic news is on the thin side, but there are still some significant reports on tap.
On Monday, the Institute for Supply Management reports on the service sector of the economy. The group's index of October activity is expected to fall to 54.0 from 54.8 in September, according to the median forecast of economists polled by Reuters.
On Friday, the Commerce Department reports on international trade for September. The monthly deficit is expected to rise to $58.5 billion from $57.6 billion in August.
The week will see data on productivity and unit labor costs, wholesale inventories, consumer credit, import and export prices, and the first November reading from the Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers. The consensus forecast is for the consumer sentiment index to decline to 80.0 from 80.9 in the final October survey.
miercuri, 10 octombrie 2007
Google tools to power virtual worlds
Get ready for online games set in your favorite Google Earth locations.
Virtual-worlds platform developer Multiverse Network is set to announce a partnership Tuesday that will allow anyone to create a new online interactive 3D environment with just about any model from Google's online repository of 3D models, its 3D Warehouse, as well as terrain from Google Earth.
The idea is simple: Multiverse's technology--which gives game developers tools to design custom virtual worlds--will let those designers pick and choose from most of the millions of 3D models created using Google's 3D software tool SketchUp, and to import pieces of terrain, as defined by entering specific longitude and latitude data, from Google Earth.
If you want to build a virtual world centered on, say, downtown San Francisco, you could use the new technology to create the area itself and populate it with the digital versions of real-world buildings that have been created and uploaded to the 3D Warehouse.
"The goal is to grab things from the 3D Warehouse when looking at things in Google Earth and then make an instant multiverse world," said Multiverse co-founder Corey Bridges. "What we've done is provide a more streamlined interface for using (Google's technology) as a virtual-world production tool."
Until now, incorporating this kind of information from Google has mostly been the province of fantasy. For some time, Multiverse has made it possible to upload some SketchUp models into a virtual world created using its platform. But the technology the company plans to announce Tuesday, informally called "Architectural Wonders," brings the concept to much more well-rounded fruition, and answers what some people have been crying out for as obvious and necessary technology integration.
"Google's mission statement is to make all the world's information universally available and useful," said Jerry Paffendorf, co-author of the Metaverse Roadmap and co-founder of a stealth start-up called Wello Horld. "So I would say this (is about) making all the world universally available and useful, and that's why this is so fascinating."
For Paffendorf, one of the most vocal proponents of a 3D massively multiplayer environment based on Google Earth and SketchUp information, Multiverse's innovation is nothing short of groundbreaking.
He said he's particularly excited and hopeful that the Architectural Wonders project will allow virtual-world designers to incorporate not just models and terrain from Google Earth, but also much of the metadata that makes it so powerful: the personal notations and photographs that millions of users have added to it.
Of course, Multiverse's project is not the only one that has sprung up to make use of this data. Google is rumored to be working on a prototype virtual world, a beta test of which may or may not be under way at Arizona State University.
Another project is SceneCaster, a new technology unveiled at last week's Demo conference that allows anyone to make 3D "scenes" incorporating models from the 3D Warehouse that can then be attached to blogs or Facebook pages or even to Flickr.
Both SceneCaster and Multiverse's Architectural Wonders projects will be shown at the Virtual Worlds conference, which starts Wednesday in San Jose, Calif.
But because not much is known about Google's stealth project and since SceneCaster does not appear to be a massively multiplayer experience, Multiverse's Architectural Wonders efforts may well prove to be the first publicly available attempt to bring vast amounts of data and models Google is making freely accessible into a working virtual world.
For now, the technology is in its very early iterations. A demonstration seen exclusively last week by CNET News.com revealed what is still fairly rudimentary technology, featuring a single avatar wandering around a largely barren terrain. However, as the avatar moved, it eventually arrived in an area where it was able to move easily among models of structures like the Empire State Building, the St. Louis arch and Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Twin Towers.
Now on News.com
For Google, many irons in the fire Photos: Home appliances, Japanese style Photos: Trial by fire for the Osprey Extra: OnStar: Big Brother or big help?
Multiverse also showed News.com its tool for selecting terrain grabbed from Google Earth. It appears to be a simple design that will make it easy for designers creating virtual worlds using Multiverse's platform to quickly enter geographic data and then to import whatever territory is defined directly into their new 3D environment.
Multiverse's technology has reached the point where it can support as many as 1,000 users per server, meaning any virtual world built using its platform and incorporating the Google Earth and 3D Warehouse models could see hundreds or even thousands of users running around inside it.
And while some might wonder why anyone would want to spend time in a virtual New York when they could be in the real place, Paffendorf, who lives in Brooklyn, has an answer.
"Simply put, if you're not there, you don't have that option," he said. "I would go exploring Brooklyn like that, for sure, to see what I'm missing."
Virtual-worlds platform developer Multiverse Network is set to announce a partnership Tuesday that will allow anyone to create a new online interactive 3D environment with just about any model from Google's online repository of 3D models, its 3D Warehouse, as well as terrain from Google Earth.
The idea is simple: Multiverse's technology--which gives game developers tools to design custom virtual worlds--will let those designers pick and choose from most of the millions of 3D models created using Google's 3D software tool SketchUp, and to import pieces of terrain, as defined by entering specific longitude and latitude data, from Google Earth.
If you want to build a virtual world centered on, say, downtown San Francisco, you could use the new technology to create the area itself and populate it with the digital versions of real-world buildings that have been created and uploaded to the 3D Warehouse.
"The goal is to grab things from the 3D Warehouse when looking at things in Google Earth and then make an instant multiverse world," said Multiverse co-founder Corey Bridges. "What we've done is provide a more streamlined interface for using (Google's technology) as a virtual-world production tool."
Until now, incorporating this kind of information from Google has mostly been the province of fantasy. For some time, Multiverse has made it possible to upload some SketchUp models into a virtual world created using its platform. But the technology the company plans to announce Tuesday, informally called "Architectural Wonders," brings the concept to much more well-rounded fruition, and answers what some people have been crying out for as obvious and necessary technology integration.
"Google's mission statement is to make all the world's information universally available and useful," said Jerry Paffendorf, co-author of the Metaverse Roadmap and co-founder of a stealth start-up called Wello Horld. "So I would say this (is about) making all the world universally available and useful, and that's why this is so fascinating."
For Paffendorf, one of the most vocal proponents of a 3D massively multiplayer environment based on Google Earth and SketchUp information, Multiverse's innovation is nothing short of groundbreaking.
He said he's particularly excited and hopeful that the Architectural Wonders project will allow virtual-world designers to incorporate not just models and terrain from Google Earth, but also much of the metadata that makes it so powerful: the personal notations and photographs that millions of users have added to it.
Of course, Multiverse's project is not the only one that has sprung up to make use of this data. Google is rumored to be working on a prototype virtual world, a beta test of which may or may not be under way at Arizona State University.
Another project is SceneCaster, a new technology unveiled at last week's Demo conference that allows anyone to make 3D "scenes" incorporating models from the 3D Warehouse that can then be attached to blogs or Facebook pages or even to Flickr.
Both SceneCaster and Multiverse's Architectural Wonders projects will be shown at the Virtual Worlds conference, which starts Wednesday in San Jose, Calif.
But because not much is known about Google's stealth project and since SceneCaster does not appear to be a massively multiplayer experience, Multiverse's Architectural Wonders efforts may well prove to be the first publicly available attempt to bring vast amounts of data and models Google is making freely accessible into a working virtual world.
For now, the technology is in its very early iterations. A demonstration seen exclusively last week by CNET News.com revealed what is still fairly rudimentary technology, featuring a single avatar wandering around a largely barren terrain. However, as the avatar moved, it eventually arrived in an area where it was able to move easily among models of structures like the Empire State Building, the St. Louis arch and Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Twin Towers.
Now on News.com
For Google, many irons in the fire Photos: Home appliances, Japanese style Photos: Trial by fire for the Osprey Extra: OnStar: Big Brother or big help?
Multiverse also showed News.com its tool for selecting terrain grabbed from Google Earth. It appears to be a simple design that will make it easy for designers creating virtual worlds using Multiverse's platform to quickly enter geographic data and then to import whatever territory is defined directly into their new 3D environment.
Multiverse's technology has reached the point where it can support as many as 1,000 users per server, meaning any virtual world built using its platform and incorporating the Google Earth and 3D Warehouse models could see hundreds or even thousands of users running around inside it.
And while some might wonder why anyone would want to spend time in a virtual New York when they could be in the real place, Paffendorf, who lives in Brooklyn, has an answer.
"Simply put, if you're not there, you don't have that option," he said. "I would go exploring Brooklyn like that, for sure, to see what I'm missing."
duminică, 30 septembrie 2007
Web-Address Theft Is Everyday Event
Acest rezumat nu este disponibil.
Dați clic aici pentru a vedea postarea.
Abonați-vă la:
Postări (Atom)