• CNET News.com, Tuesday, October 9, 2007 11:15 AM

Virtual world developer Multiverse is announcing a partnership today with Google allowing Web users to create their own virtual worlds using 3D models from Google 3D Warehouse, Google SketchUp and Google Earth. Although it sounds complicated, CNET insists that it's not: the Multiverse platform allows users to literally grab images from 3D Warehouse, whole environments from Google Earth, and 3D models created using SketchUp, and plot them in a digital universe that's all your own--well, you and anyone else who wants to play in your newly created world.

So, if you want San Francisco in your virtual world, all you have to do is enter the area's longitude and latitude, and voila! You've got San Francisco. If you want to move the Empire State Building to your San Francisco, you can do so by grabbing the image from 3D Warehouse and simply moving it (how exactly, is unclear--copy and paste, perhaps?). In any event, the technology should allow the layman to create online games or interactive maps. The barrier to enter the world of virtual programming just got thinner.

As CNET points out, Google Earth 3D mashups have been hinted at for a long time, but were always considered a project for the distant future. It's surprising to see something launched so soon--however, like any good Google product, the joint project, (currently) called "Architectural Wonders," is far from being complete. CNET uses the word "rudimentary" to describe the technology, while also referring to it as "groundbreaking."

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