Business 2.0's Chris Taylor writes about Google's emerging VR software:

The notion that you can create objects and buildings and place them in a virtual world makes Google Earth sounds less like a mapping tool and more like a metaverse. What's a metaverse? Science fiction writer Neal Stephenson introduced the term in his seminal 1992 novel, Snow Crash. The metaverse was Stephenson's name for a virtual world where his characters play and do business. It was a black ball 1.6 times the size of Earth, with a giant street running around its equator.

The Microsoft-Google metaverse contest should be pretty extreme. Scenario: Microsoft executes a MSN Virtual Earth (shouldn't there be a "Live" in there?) and XBox Live Anywhere mashup. People populate the world from, and develop it with: videogame, PC, and cell phone interfaces. XBox Live's marketplace handles transactions.

Can we expect hints from Steve Lombardi?  ¶ 11:54 PM