Google has shut down Lively, a service where people log on to chat and explore 3D virtual spaces, after a few short months. The MBAs of Silicon Valley have a pat phrase for the arrival of a competitor on the scene: They say it "validates their space." What does it say, then, that Lively is gone? It means that Second…

Second Life, the 3D virtual world favored by furries and the digital departments of ad agencies desperate to convince clients how cutting-edge they are, is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year. In that time, little has changed — the same poorly-rendered polygons and textures move through the same largely…

Despite a silver-tongued PR team capable of spinning any irrelevant Second Life happening into a New York Times story, former Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale couldn't save himself from the downside of the virtual hype cycle. His "life's work" has become a punchline. Here are the five mistakes that added up to cost…

Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale is stepping down as CEO. The Benchmark Capital-backed company is looking for a new chief with more operational and management experience. "This is my life's work. I'm not going anywhere, and I'm still full-time on this, probably for the rest of my life," says Rosedale, shown here as…

Gavin Newsom, San Francisco's freshly reelected god-mayor, descended into the bowels of Second Life for a quaint fireside chat with Philip Rosedale, CEO of Linden Lab. What lofty matters could a city mayor and the chieftain of a seamy virtual world possibly have to discuss? Why, the parallels between the "two…

How else to explain the Linden Lab CEO's waxy complexion? He's the unending leader of an unholy company which laughs at death, and sustains itself through artificial means — PR, that is. To maintain that unhealthy glow, he's preying on unsuspecting technology journalists, sucking out all common sense and…

Just when things turn bleak for Second Life maker Linden Lab — CTO Cory Ondrejka recently "left" the company — CEO Philip Rosedale manages to pull a fluff piece out of the BBC. He's previously denied he has anything to do with timing these media wet kisses, but we're skeptical. Perhaps it's his boyish charm and…

Looks like all those problems in the big empty known as Second Life — the virtual world's confounding user interface, poor graphics, and high attrition rate — aren't going to get fixed anytime soon. Word comes via tipster that Linden Lab chief technology officer Cory Ondrejka, the dude who ostensibly runs the…

While other startup founders have to stay home and, you know, work, these guys have the time and the spare $3,000 to spend hanging out at a zero-agenda conference in Hawaii. (For the record, we're jealous.) Spotted in Yahoo executive Bradley Horowitz's Flickr stream: Benchmark entrepreneur-in-waiting Nirav Tolia; "…

Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale is learning, the hard way, how a charm offensive can turn, well, offensive. The man behind virtual world Second Life may have staged BusinessWeek's glowing visions of the future and Newsweek's virtual wet kiss, but now comes the backlash. Following Wired's…

When all else fails, deny, deny, deny. Philip Rosedale, the founder of Linden Lab, is spitting in the face of Wired's recent exposé on the desperate state of Second Life, his company's virtual world. The magazines reported that advertisers are abandoning the thinly populated virtual world after discovering they've…

The Hollywood Reporter runs a relatively standard-issue Second Life trend piece, with a slightly novel presentation of entertainment and advertising companies' reactions for/against. Dennis Miller of Spark Capital does get a good quote, describing the current scene quite cogently as one of "maximum paranoia and…