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...have signed on, including department stores Marks and Spencer and Liberty, as well as chains like Jaeger, French Connection and American Apparel. See something in a store window that you like the look of, say a red cashmere sweater? Click on it, and if the retailer is a Near London client, you'll open the appropriate page on that store's website. If you click on a retailer that's not part of Near, you'll open up that shop's generic website. Either way, you've got the opportunity to make a purchase. "For us, it's an opportunity...
...also face some competition. Popular virtual world Second Life has let gamers visit reproductions of parts of London for several years. And German cyber-tourism site Twinty, which lets people visit a virtual Berlin and Singapore, is also preparing a London launch. But, unlike Near London, shopping isn't the prime focus of those sites. Instead they're about setting up a cyber-life for your virtual alter ego, or avatar, complete with its own apartment and wardrobe. (See a Techland exclusive: the first look at Avatar's 'Interactive Trailer...
...Near London shuns humanoid avatars; visitors are instead represented by a colored shaft of light. "If you give them bodies, it gets in the way of the experience," says Alex Wrottesley, founder of Near Global, the firm behind the London site. Because you're shopping for yourself, not your avatar. Moreover, he adds, humanoid avatars "really don't look very good." You can also access Near London through Facebook, which means friends can browse and shop together in real time. (Talking to strangers is not allowed...
...Nick Gibson, an analyst and virtual-world expert at London's Games Investor Consulting, calls it "an interesting idea." But he cautions that the main driver for online shopping "is price and convenience, rather than the social aspects of it." Most consumers, Gibson says, go online to buy something specific, so it's uncertain if they'll find causal shopping and browsing appealing. (See the top 10 video games...
...Wrottesley, of course, believes they will, and he's already planning additional features to this beta version. He'll be adding New Bond Street to Near London early in 2010, and there are plans to recreate other London shopping zones, including Knightsbridge and Kensington. The site will also soon feature advertisements on billboards, buses and taxis, up-to-the-minute headlines on newsstands and even simulated weather that will mirror real-time conditions. Movie theaters, hotels, restaurants and bars could be part of the mix, too. Click on a theater, and you might watch trailers of what's on; visit...