5, er, 6 new 'worlds'

More signs of where virtual worlds are heading. The new "worlds" (defined loosely as such by Virtual World News) are a service that blends social networking and a virtual-world-like (3D) online environment; two new MMOGs (massively multiplayer online game), one for peer-to-peer learning and one sort of like a World of Warcraft with a twist; a 3D-world feature for the Web browser; and technology that turns a digital camera aims into a tool for "merging the virtual and real worlds." They're being unveiled at the TechCrunch conference this week (you can watch presentations live on that Web page). In TechCrunch50.com, I watched the presentation by a founder and two young users of a sixth world, Tweegee.com, a soon-to-be-launched competitor to ClubPenguin that claims to be safe and have features not found in any other kid sites. There are so many of these popping up - Tweegee's not even on Virtual Worlds Management's list of 150 live and developing worlds for youth (see this).