There is certainly a lot of merit to the speculation Google might create a metaverse. In the 1980s, I worked on virtual reality technologies at NASA, and I've been a big fan of Snow Crash and the concept of a metaverse since the book was first published. There have been many attempts (I made a couple attempts myself) since the early 90s to make metaverses - and the concept is finally starting to catch on (mostly because the standard desktop can finally handle the 3D graphics required). Google Earth has already demonstrated many innovative ways to pull in diverse dynamic information from the Internet and share that in a visually appealing way. And Google has barely tapped the possibilities even with GE 4 which just came out. There are many possibilities for improving Google Earth and how we interact with it.

But, Google Earth is not a metaverse. It's a virtual globe on steroids. However, thanks in part to GE and SketchUp, Google has the right technologies, and experience with data scalability and interfaces to make a metaverse work. For Google there could be big money (even more advertising possibilities) by providing better ways to interact with Internet information rather than just using a standard browser. Buying SecondLife? There could be some merit to that strategy, but Google could certainly develop their own platform if they chose to go this route - and marketing would not be a problem.

I'm eagerly awaiting further developments for both Google Earth/virtual globes, and what happens in the rapidly developing Metaverse market. We live in exciting times!