<p>This post was inspired by Aral Bakan&#8217;s <a href="http://aralbalkan.com/1099">web&#8217;08 predictions: the rise of RIAs and the 3D web</a>. It&#8217;s a nice writing on what may change in the web next year.</p>

<p>For a long time I am expecting web to gain one more dimension. It&#8217;s the natural evolution: at first you have one dimension (this one would be linear text, like telnet), then the two dimension (hypertext) came along and everyone was dazzled. Although hypertext has a <a href="http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/">long road ahead</a>, I believe we should be jumping now to the next step.</p>

<p><a href="http://blog.papervision3d.org/">Papervision3D</a> is offering a pretty good solution in the present. I know of examples where it is being used and it will make other websites look pretty common. But I believe we can go farther in this 3D web. With the computer power we have at home nowadays, it&#8217;s not hard to launch a 3D browser. A 3D canvas with objects with x,y,z coordinates would allow whole new experiences in websites.</p>

<div class="quote">Wait a moment, that's Second Life!</div>

<p>Ok, it may look the same at first, but it&#8217;s not. Lindenlabs own the world, and by definition no one owns the Internet. For the good and for the bad, Internet browsing is a anonymous task. Of course you can login in which sites you want, but you can have the freedom to be anonymous and SecondLife doesn&#8217;t allow you that. You should also be able to own your own webserver and give what content do you want to, without any rules (but in a standard extensible language, like tHTML). And SL is trying to simulate the real world there, while the 3D websites would be far more abstract (of course a lot of people will emulate the real physics) and allow innovative experiences.</p>

<p>SL is however a good study-case for this 3D ambient. Not everyone seems comfortable with it and it serves only some purposes, mainly playful. When it comes to productivity, I believe 2D is simpler and straightforward. This 3D context should have come first in the Desktop, and we have not one popular example. I am not talking about Compiz&#8217;s cube effect, but more about a <a href="http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/131">BumpTop</a> experience.</p>

<p>Is this a bad omen for the 3D internet? Or the new possibilities will overcome that lack of productivity? I look forward to hear new opinions on this subject.</p>