ABSTRACT
Internet services have become a primary new venue for social connections with innovations such as blogs, listservs, dating sites, networked multiplayer video games, and social networking sites. This chapter focuses on one of these Internet services, a phenomenon called Second Life, and attempt to explain why people are turning to Second Life in a search for social interaction. Later, this chapter addresses the implications that Second Life holds for marketing practitioners as well as consumer behavior researchers. Second Life allows marketers to create product-focused experiences and promotional placements within a thriving virtual marketplace. Second Life is a prime example of virtual world or a computer-simulated environment. In Second Life, users operate in a simulated world via graphical representations of humans called avatars. The term avatar is derived from a Sanskrit word used to describe the presence of a god on earth. Second Life users have considerable freedom in the design and creation of their personal avatar.
