Unfortunately, while the service has been in closed beta, logins to the virtual world have been doled out based on how active a user’s profile is. Kaneva is somewhat similar to (though much more elegant than) the three-dimensional web browser 3B, which enables web-browsing in a virtual space, though the ability to interact with other folks is lacking in that product.Īpparently, one of the business models for the Kaneva service involves advertiser sponsorships and partnerships, but not much word has been released on this yet. In general, the idea behind Kaneva was to encourage deeper emotional interactions between users by allowing them to play out in a virtual world, while at the same time providing an external, easy-to-use social networking component. It’s the equivalent of, say, having a house in Second Life that automatically populates itself with pictures uploaded to your MySpace page or a television that displays YouTube videos every time you turn it on. Users create profiles on the social networking site, upload images and media content (this includes videos and, I believe, audio), and then use that content to populate their virtual abode. Kaneva is, essentially, a mash-up of social networks and virtual worlds. Finally! We’ve had our eye on this little gem for a while and, while the lab staff has all managed to get profiles on the Kaneva social networking site, our entrance to the virtual world has been delayed a bit. On Monday, Kaneva, a melded social networking site and virtual world, will finally launch in open beta, according to Mark over at.