SL Exchange’s auto-refreshed Featured Marketplace is useful + fun!

Posted on: August 5, 2008

Simple feature, but rather pleasant and a sheer delighter: Second Life webshop SL Exchange has, on their front page, 6 Featured Marketplace items which appear to be chosen at random, then auto-refresh every 30 seconds… or sooner if you press “Get More”! It soon becomes addicting, and is a nice way to get a taste of the rich diversity of what’s for sale in Second Life. Should you miss something, there’s a convenient back button.

You may even find some stuff you saw inworld but lost — a kewl avatar that TPed away, furniture at a lush place you forgot to landmark (but remember you can always check Chat History to see the last places you teleported from). For example, I wanted to tell my brother about anime-styled avatar, and it just came up on my other monitor as I was writing this!

SERENDIPITY MMMM.

One of my passions, personal + professional, is to understand by experience what’s out on the market and how it’s being used. I’ve made some brilliant and eccentric discoveries, and wonder why more online storefronts — including non-Second Life ones — don’t have something like this?

3 Responses to “SL Exchange’s auto-refreshed Featured Marketplace is useful + fun!”

  1. Patchouli Woollahra Says:
    August 6th, 2008 at 6:01 AM PDT

    wonder why more online storefronts — including non-Second Life ones — don’t have something like this?

    Well, to randomly grab a handful of items out of a very large database requires significant db querying legwork. To do that every half-minute is a pretty hefty load if you multiply by the number of unique users that SLExchange gets, even if a cache is involved and everyone gets served the same random shovelful.

    Ajax is cruise control for creeping bandwidth overuse.

  2. thaumata Says:
    August 9th, 2008 at 6:44 PM PDT

    It's not as random as it appears. People who want their items on that front page pay a premium for advertising. The front page listing costs about L$3000 per month to be included in the rotation.

    But, I do agree that it's interesting to shop from there.

  3. Torley Says:
    August 10th, 2008 at 8:34 AM PDT

    Thanks for clarifying that, thaumata.

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