In late April 2009, Google released an API called O3D for the creation of rendered, 3D, interactive scenes right within your web browser.

This has been a sort after and well discussed possibility for many years, and as you will know if you keep up with this blog, 3D is (in my humble opinion) quite simply the superior format for our minds to manifest and interact with ideas.

Here is a very cool example of the API at work called the O3D Home Designer, it shows off the immense potential of this plugin, not to mention how fun it is to play with.


Google have been updating and working on O3D ever since they initially released the software which was done at a partially developed stage. It was released early on (in Google's own words): "as part of a conversation with the broader developer community about establishing an open web standard for 3D graphics".

The O3D concept is not at all original, Hypercosm have written their own programming language to create a pretty impressive product that is similar to O3D and there are many other similar products out there, but as Google has proven time and again (to Hypercosm and Co's possible detriment) they can take an existing idea and transform it into something game changing.

Fantastically, the software is open source, allowing a community based development mentality and encouraging the user community to take some ownership for the product.

Google has proven that such open source projects can be viable and the corporation's astronomical success has been a major divergence from the original closed intellectual property mentality of such tech juggernauts as Microsoft. Speaking of which, I just read an interesting NY Times article which I thought cast some insight into the Microsoft business model. Read it here.

Getting back to the point, I think a 3D browser experience is the future and it won't be long before it is the standard way of accessing information online. There is a mentality shift required by the broader public from 2D web to 3D but this will most likely occur naturally once the superior format becomes widely accepted. Perhaps instead of browsing through amazon.com like a catalog, we will potentially walk around a virtual mall and see the products on shelves, we might even walk past or interact with other shoppers/users. This will make the internet a more intuitive and engaging experience. I am sure Google sees this too and is hoping to make O3D the means for the web as a whole to begin such an evolutionary step.

Extra reading for those who are interested:
Stephen Shankland's opinion on O3D
Gigaom had this to say about O3D

We are currently looking at O3D for our own products and services, if you would like to know more or discuss anything I've written here, email me at: ash@coastalconcepts.org