And you though immersive worlds were done! Well, actually YOU probably knew they weren't and Hangout.com is one of the latest entries in this space, designed to help 16-24 year olds interact in their own virtual spaces.
Interact with whom, you might ask. Well, friends, new friends, and even A list bands. That last bit is a nice touch, offering a richer alternative to MySpace's presumed "ownership" of music in the multipurpose social media realm.
CNET produced the following vid from their Tech Crunch launch:
It's great that someone is really reexamining the social network space -- the ability to create a profile online was a tremendous innovation. But it isn't fostering as complete an interaction as is possible
I'm not in the beta yet, but from what I can see the 3-D environment is beautiful.
One interesting aspect of this world is the ability to dress yourself and your space with digital facsimiles of real world objects -- objects you can click to buy and have sent to your real world home.
And this part seems great as well: within your hangout, you can jointly experience media with your friends -- music and video and and and watched "together" in real time.
Here's how they describe themselves:
Get A Room
Now you can customize your own room, fully interact with friends and your favorite brands, and share media experiences in an immersive 3D environment. Hangout helps My Space become My Place and offers:
Fully customizable rooms- choose your furniture, wall colors, anything
Dress your avatar - Mohawk, high heels, thousands of t-shirts
Cover the walls - put up your Facebook photos or choose from hundreds of thousands of posters from Art.com
Watch YouTube videos with your friends or listen to a playlist of music you like
Interact with the brands your love - Monster Energy, SkullCandy, CELCIUS
Play games with your friends - beat their high score, earn coin, and brag
Make totally new furniture - bend the legs, stretch the cushions, get creative
Hangout - chat, voice chat, or just check each other out.
They aren't the only virtual world designed especially for young people, but if you compare the look and functionality of this site to...say...Habbo... there really is no comparison.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
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