Since announcing our acquisition of Avatars United, we've had a ton of Second Life Residents getting involved and playing with the site. A big thank you to everyone who's been trying it out!

Currently, avatar ownership on Avatars United is not verified (see the site's FAQ) for any virtual world or MMO on the platform, including Second Life. However, now that we've acquired the site, we've already started working on a standard, easy method of verifying ownership of Second Life avatars. You’ll hear more about that soon.

In the meantime, note that Avatars United provides a unique URL for every profile; you can add this URL to your inworld Second Life profile. This provides a definitive way for other users to verify that the profile they see on the Avatars United site really belongs to you. We've asked that all Lindens with Avatars United accounts take this step for the time being.

Please visit the Knowledge Base for answers to all of your Second Life-related questions.  Or if you have a question, the fastest way to get help is to submit a support ticket via the Second Life Support Portal.

For issues related to the Avatars United site, please use the current Avatars United Support Channels.

Thanks for all the excitement, activity and feedback - keep it coming!

Second Life made strides in 2009, as T talked about in his recent blog post, but we still have work to do. There are some big changes ahead this year as we start to make SL more intuitive, more relevant and more connected to the social Web. Today I want to talk about one of the social strategy initiatives we have planned, and tell you about an acquisition we've just completed that will help us in this area.

I've met many amazing people in Second Life and I am sure you have too.  This is a big part of what makes Second Life so powerful.   It's the "social glue" of experiencing an online world together that makes being there worthwhile.  When we talk to the users who sign up but then decide not to stay, they say they left, in part, because they had a hard time finding people to hang out with. Either their friends weren't there, or they have a hard time meeting new ones inworld, or sometimes both.  We need to fix this.

Another part of the "social glue" of any community is the concept of sharing.  Inworld, it's easy to share and we'll make it even easier.  But sharing between Second Life and the larger social Web is not as easy.  As an avid photographer (well, aspiring to be avid), I'd love to be able to easily share my snapshots from Second Life with my friends on other Web services, and be able to watch a feed of the people I'm interested in.  It's a great way to meet new people, find cool things and interesting places to visit.  Sure, I have my own work-arounds for those capabilities, but it's standard practice to build easy sharing into experiences today and that's what we're going to do.  More people will share in more places, and through that more people will discover the wonders of Second Life.

One of our priorities this year (and there are many, from making the experience more intuitive to reducing Lag), is to give Residents new and better ways to connect and share, through features like the following:

• Searchable profiles
• Friend and activity feeds
• Widgets and viral content
• Optional registration and sign-in using credentials from other properties (Facebook, Yahoo!, etc.)
  
• APIs that enable developers to create widgets, tools, and sites pulling from selected SL data feeds
  

Our goal is to extend and support the great work done by so many on their SL-related blogs and Web sites, because they are a powerful network in themselves. We want to give you more tools, feeds, and connection points to build even more richness and depth into the experience of SL.  This is something we only want to encourage. Hamlet did a great post recently about the power of the Second Life "family" of blogs and sites.

One thing I want to be clear about:  The first design principle in this social strategy is respect of your privacy.  We aren't going to take away any privacy or anonymity for those that want it. We are not going to "out" people.  We are not going to force anyone to reveal any private or personal information.  But for those who want to connect their various online identities, we do want to offer that option.  Second Life has always been inclusive, and although there are many Residents who keep a strict separation between SL and the rest of the Web, others wish there was a better way to actively link their SL account to other Web services, and do things like share screenshots, locations, wish-lists, experiences and stories more easily.  Our proprietary stance on naming and social networking hasn't served that second set of Residents as well as we would like, and that's one of the things we'll change and improve. But for those who don't want to opt in to an arrangement like that, nothing at all will change.

To help us do all this, we're excited to announce an acquisition we've just made that will soon start to give Residents new and better ways to connect with each other and with the rest of the world: Enemy Unknown AB is a Swedish company that runs Avatars United, a Web-based community site designed especially for avatars. We're proud to announce that they are now part of Linden Lab.

Avatars United lets you make some of those connections that I'm talking about above.  It's a great site.  Check it out and add me, T Linden, and others to your friend list. As you do, you'll start to build an activity feed (similar to Facebook or Twitter) that keeps you in closer touch with the people you're connected to in Second Life. This is one of the most exciting things about the acquisition, this ability to reach my friends more easily, with more interesting information (and photos!), and in a more meaningful way. As we go, we'll be adding to these capabilities -- and because Avatars United provides developer APIs, anyone else can add to these capabilites as well.

One thing we're really excited about is the team behind the AU site. Thor Olof and his team bring a wealth of talent to Linden Lab. More importantly, these guys get it, they know that the social needs of avatars are often unique, and they know how to serve them. One exciting side effect of this acquisition is the prospect of having an ecosystem of Second Life apps grow up around Avatars United. The AU team already has an active and growing developer program, and we're looking forward to seeing what the endlessly talented SL dev community can do there. (I'm betting/hoping that a groups app will be one of the first to emerge.) What kind of Second Life apps would you like?  What kinds of APIs would you like to be able to develop on?

In coming months, we'll be looking at the best way to create new services for Second Life around some of the sharing and networking tools that Avatars United has to offer. The AU team is focused on how to extend their platform out to other social networks, sites, and blogs. That will also be key to how we want to connect the expanse of Second Life-related sites, and give them a higher profile on the Web. In the meantime, we invite you to create a profile for your Second Life avatar (or your avatar in another online world), and let us know what you think. As we work to bring AU closer to Second Life, we'll also be helping the company scale its own offering; the AU site itself isn't going away. One of the most interesting elements of AU is that there are profiles from many MMORPGs and online worlds on the site. We love this aspect of AU, and we're committed to keeping this ideal of a place where avatars from multiple worlds and games can come together. While our focus is SL, we will continue to support these communities and keep them engaged. We're looking forward to seeing what kinds of connections people build with the new tools we're working on, both within Second Life itself, and between SL and elsewhere, for those that want it. What kinds of connections would you like to see?

After a really successful Beta period we are delighted to announce that Linden Homes will be launching for all Premium members on February 17th.

Last month we opened a Beta program for a new feature of Premium Subscription that we've called a Linden Home. You can read the original blog post. We invited a few thousand existing Premium members to take part in the Beta and 750 of you took the option of a Linden Home, which is incredible.

This month we surveyed those Beta testers and as expected, we got some great feedback. Happily the large majority of testers told us that they have really enjoyed the experience and value it highly; thank you all for taking the time to get involved. We agree that more variety in house styles would be good, and the suggestions around privacy have given us plenty to work on. We also saw some common themes around building more of a sense of neighbourhood and community in the Linden Home areas, so we're going to be thinking a lot more about how we help there.

So, based on your feedback we are making some changes for the launch itself and working on incorporating the bigger ideas over time. Due to the way that Linden Homes are designed we can add new themes easily over time, and we can make improvements to a house as necessary. We will be talking more about the underlying technology we have used in an upcoming post and intend to make the scripts available to those that want to use similar methods on their own land.

If you have taken a look around the Linden Homes you may have noticed a mysterious control panel on an inside wall. Also new for launch will be the ability to configure the houses via a web page of options, accessed by clicking that control panel. Owners will be able to choose from a selection of different wall, floor and roof textures, amongst other things, giving more variety to the homes themselves.

I'm a Premium member, how will I get my free Linden Home?

From the 17th February all Premium members will be able to have a Linden Home as part of their subscription. If you are a Premium member, we will be sending you an email that will explain how to claim your new home. You will also be able to sign up through your account pages on the website.

How do I become a Premium member?

In addition to a Linden Home, premium members receive a sign-up bonus, weekly rewards, mainland building rights and live access to customer support. If you want to become a Premium member, you can do so through the Change Membership Page. It's very quick and easy. Here are more details on what is provided in the subscription package.

What is a Linden Home?

This is a new feature of the Premium subscription package. Along with a L$ stipend, additional support and a free Mainland tier allowance, all Premium members will be able to opt to own a free Linden Home using their free Mainland tier. The homes themselves come in a variety of themes and designs, and are placed ready for you to move straight in! Remember, you can only have a Linden Home if you are a Premium member.

We are providing Linden Homes because we want to help residents to experience the benefits of owning their own home in Second Life. Land can be complicated for new and existing residents to understand, so Linden Homes is designed to be an easy, predictable and safe introduction to land.

If you'd like to take a look at the Linden Homes for yourself, here are some SLurls you can explore.

Elderglen infohub:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Elderglen/128/128/29

Tahoe:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Buckeye/207/32/29

Shareta Osumai:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kagero/142/147/29

Meadowbrook:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bowston/123/91/51