Much as I love Second Life, I’m not so infatuated that I can’t see that Linden Lab are wide open to someone overtaking them with a smaller, lower-spec application with a similar feature set. And while it’s still in Beta (isn’t everything these days?), Unype’s ability to use your Skype account and Google Earth to create a multi-user avatar populated virtual world looks like it has the potential to become a serious contender. Granted, it doesn’t have SL’s content creation features or the bells and whistles … but the lower barriers for entry may render that irrelevant. [Clickable Culture]