Time names it one of the five places on the internet to avoid. That’s a little ridiculous but considering that the other sites Time thinks should be avoided are MySpace, Evite, eHarmony, and the ever-irritating Meez, at least Linden can feel pleased that SL is listed alongside companies that have done things like managed to actually turn a profit.

This part me made chuckle and sigh at the same time:

“Fans praise Second Life as a virtual hangout where you can meet and chat and buy sneakers and real estate (that’s fake stuff for real money) and dance and go bowling and have sex — suggesting that “virtual humans” doing “human things” online in Second Life is somehow less pathetic than, say, cooking Kaldorei spider kabobs or making magic pantaloons in World of Warcraft.”

I don’t like the implication that doing things virtually is pathetic, at all, but at least Time recognizes that there’s nothing inherently more pathetic about moving some bits around and calling it “spider kabob cooking” than there is about moving some bits around and calling it “virtual bowling” or “virtual lapdancing.”

There’s also an article from July 9th in AdAge entitled, “Second Life Losing Lock on Virtual-Site Marketing” subtitled, “As Users and Brands Head to Startups, Giant in Space Starts to Seem Outdated.”