Virtual worlds are everywhere, and ever since Second Life became a popular web-based virtual world, we've all been waiting for the other shoe to drop in terms of virtual world potential for integrated social media and marketing.
We've seen a good deal of development towards this arena, with things like Armani stores in Second Life, Sears clothing for your Meez, and branded products available for decorating your 3D room in SceneCaster.
SmallWorlds is a new web-based virtual world offering that is looking to combine several aspects of current trends, with a great focus on social media. So you can use Flickr images as posters in your virtual bedroom, or watch YouTube clips on your 3D living room television.
Other applications, like Grafiti, that have become popular on networks like Facebook, are also present in SmallWorlds. Games, such as pool, can also be played within SmallWorlds, in a similar fashion as gameplay on a portal like Yahoo Games.
What SmallWorlds is looking to do is bring the actual social media web experience into a virtual world, not through recration of various social activities, but the more direct application of media within SmallWorlds. The public beta of SmallWorlds launches today, if you'd like to try it out.