Okay, so on the one hand, we've got Google Earth, which gives you some very spiffy satellite images of any place on Earth. This is cool by itself, a bit two-dimensional perhaps, but then there's Google SketchUp. As with all Google products, it is free and open for anyone to use. More to the point, it integrates with Google Earth, so anyone in the world can create 3D models and place them in Google's virtual world.

This sounds like something I've heard of. Can anyone say Second Life? Granted, I'm not the first to speculate about Google creating its own virtual world, but it's an intriguing prospect nonetheless. The possibilities of creating a virtual Earth modelled after the real one are truly mind-boggling. And, with the recent improvements to Google Earth, this is starting to seem more and more like an inevitability than a rumor.

Of course, one key aspect of Second Life is that there are people. Right now, Google's world is nothing but maps and architectural models with a population of zero... right? Insert dramatic pause here. According to one rumor, Google recently hired some former There.com developers.

Could there be a MMOG-style future for Google Earth? What better way could there be to tackle the daunting task of building its 3D architecture than to hand the world the tools to do so? What if, ten years down the road, we're all logging onto Google wi-fi through cheap, Gubuntu-loaded Dells and living our lives in Google's virtual world through AJAX browser apps, which will be a free service because the virtual world will generate revenue through contextually-driven AdSense links?

Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself, but it seems that every software component and development put out by Google are pieces of a larger puzzle. Considering they fit so well together (e.g. Earth and SketchUp), it isn't hard to imagine larger things down the road. As always, I will be at the front of the line the day Google starts indexing brains.

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