 the future is here
eptember 18, 2008 - 9:22AM
Hold on to your hats, the world wide web is about to go 3D - virtually speaking, of course.
If you think the internet is the ultimate window on the world, then you haven't bargained on the next level.
In what is set to become a whole new web browsing experience in which computer game meets interactive platform, developers today launch ExitReality - a new type of media that turns every single website page in existence from two-dimensional into three-dimensional.
While 3D already exists in certain applications like the online video games Second Life and World of Warcraft, ExitReality is an open-ended internet experience.
As well as being able to research your next overseas trip - for example, a holiday in Paris, in a virtual simulation of the French capital - cyber surfers will be able to view friends' photographs online in a three-dimensional art gallery or watch YouTube videos in a 3D cinema.
Developers also claim ExitReality will take social networking to another level by displaying sites such as Facebook and MySpace as virtual apartments and providing real-time interaction on websites through its own instant messaging platform.
"This is the Google of 3D internet, it's instant messenger on steroids," ExitReality founder Danny Stefanic said.
"It is going to revolutionise the internet.
"With Second Life and World of Warcraft, users visit the one destination for a virtual experience but ExitReality allows you to view not just that one website but the entire world wide web in 3D."
Powered by a free, 3.5mb (megabyte) internet plug-in downloadable from the company's website, ExitReality also works as a search engine, mining and collating all 3D content ever created that exists on the web.
Mr Stefanic said one of the greatest developments was the move away from the solo web browsing experience to an interactive arena where two or more people could view the same web page at the same time and engage with one another simultaneously through their own avatars.
Additionally, advertisers stood to gain increased exposure in an expanded environment with web users spending longer on the same pages or sites while they interacted, he said.
"Users would normally spend no longer than a couple of minutes on a 2D website. In a 3D environment, this time can extend to half an hour, which creates a huge potential for the website owner to maximise user engagement," Mr Stefanic said.
ExitReality is due to be launched worldwide from Melbourne's Federation Square at 11am (AEST) today  | 
09-17-2008
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