Oddcast is taking its talking avatars to the next logical place: virtual worlds. The company is launching a new product called AvatarSpace, a Web application that enables custom avatars to talk to one another through voice or text. However, as opposed to massive services like SecondLife or Club Penguin, Oddcast is targeting individual brands, allowing them to launch their own mini-virtual worlds as opposed to either developing their own or buying ad space in an established one.

The features of AvatarSpace aren’t nearly as advanced as those of some of the larger virtual worlds – it’s more of a group chat that utilizes Oddcast’s existing avatar technology. Using your own voice, you can talk to other avatars in a given chat room, or type them a message via text. Users in the room can also watch videos simultaneously. Moving around is simple enough, and can be done either via your computer’s arrow keys or mouse.

Meanwhile, as opposed to a service like Google Lively, where individual rooms around the Web can still be inter-connected, Oddcast’s rooms are strictly meant to live on the website where they are published. This is because the company is not looking to build a massive virtual world, but rather, provide an inexpensive solution to companies that want to keep visitors on their websites longer.

For Oddcast, AvatarSpace opens up a whole new line of business beyond the one-to-one interactions previously offered for functions like sales and e-learning. While CEO Adi Sideman tells me the technology will be used mostly for promotions with things like multi-user game shows and karaoke, it could also conceivably create a new way to do sales or customer service, especially with the built-in video player.

AvatarSpace launches today in beta, with an official launch expected to come late this year, when the company will also move to 3D avatars from the current “2.5D.”

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Picture Yourself a Bridezilla, with WE.tv and Oddcast VideosOddCast’s New API: Talking Avatars Are Coming To A Community Near YouMySpace Avatars from SitepalMake Your Pet Do the Talking with allaboutpets’ Version of Elf YourselfOddcast Launches Voki: The Right Avatars for MySpaceBuild Your Own Avatar Community with the Voki PlatformNickelodeon Adds Social Networking Features to its Casual Gaming Sites

Tootsville is a new virtual world for children ages 6-14 that’s very similar to Disney’s online cash cows ToonTown and ClubPenguin (which they purchased for $700 million).

The reference to Disney is important to note because monetization is obviously extremely important to Tootsville. This is evident by the fact that kids cannot really do many of the fun things the site has to offer without their parents ponying up some money on a monthly or annual basis.

These premium accounts range from $5.95 per month up to $57.98 annually. Here are some of the things your kids CAN’T do unless you upgrade to a premium account: Walk on 2 legs, Dress up your toot, buy clothes or furniture, decorite your house, attend special events, collect pivitz, play premium games and safe chat with friends. I know, then what CAN they do? The answer: not a whole lot really. 

Speaking of money, since the characters in Tootsville are a bunch of colorful elephants, the currency they use is in the form of peanuts. Kids get a bunch of peanuts if their parents subscribe to the more expensive premiere plans, naturally. This is important because this is what they use to buy objects such as clothes for their elephant or furniture for thier house. Some might say this is a good way to teach children the value of money and how to spend wisely. 

On the positive side of things, the site is full of bright colorful worlds and loaded with activities (some are even free!). Kids can easily chat with other “toots” and checkout places together. The good news is that there are ways for kids to earn peanuts by doing certain things. For example, by going to the water fountain (see image above) and making a wish you quickly make 19 peanuts. 

Tootsville’s goal is to mix educational lessons with entertainment as displayed throughout the site. The Tootering program is scheduled for release for spring 2009 and the Teacher’s Pet Program will emphasize the fun in learning, at home, and in the classroom. 

If you’re a parent with children that enjoy playing online, then safe sites like Tootsville and the ones from Disney provide a service that’ll provide fun for kids and peace of mind for parents. When you look at things that way, then the small cost of membership is well worth it.

I am not an expert in virtual worlds but on the news tonight there was a segment on Second Life which I thought was worth sharing. The NBC news anchor starts by saying, "The Dark Side of the Web…is Second Life". The segment discusses how parents should keep their teenagers away from Second Life because of all of the sex, porn, drugs, and suicide that occurs in the virtual world. I don’t know about you, but growing up in Brooklyn, most of those things happened on a near-daily basis. The doctor in the segment explains that if teenagers participate in an activity online, they are more likely to want to do it in real life.

Again, while I don’t use Second Life, my guess is that you can find these things anywhere online even outside this "dark side" virtual world.

(apologies for the poor video quality)

More CN Coverage:
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Below are five of the newest startups according to Killer Startups for the period ending April 4, 2008. Check out previous Killer Startups posts.

Introniche - Cross Promotion Classifieds

If you are looking at a way of increasing your marketing reach without having to spend a dime then a cross-promotion solution, like the one offered by IntroNiche, could be just what the doctor ordered. "What is cross-promotion marketing" you ask? It could also be defined as barter marketing, co-operative marketing or joint venture marketing. Interniche allows you to create an ad and post it in the category of your choice. read more »

Articleonramp - Article Submission and Distribution

ArticleOnRamp acts as a portal that allows businesses and others to upload articles in their area of expertise in order to promote themselves on the web. Webmasters can go to ArticleOnRamp.com to download these categorized articles and post them on their website free of charge, or other individuals can go to the site to read whatever they like. The premise is that webmasters will make use of this service to put relevant content on their websites, thereby helping to syndicate businesses’ articles and improve their exposure. read more »

Quazion - Tech Blog RSS Aggregator

Quazion is a new site that aims to bring you the latest news from many popular technology blogs and provide it to you all in one place. Simply put, Quazion takes RSS feeds supplied from sites like TechCrunch, GigaOM, CNN Technology, and others and puts them on their page which stops you from having to go to each individual page to get your tech fix. read more »

PopBandit - Personal Recommendations for Everything

PopBandit.com is a social recommendation site that aims to help users find new products, videos, music, events, and even friends. When you join PopBandit, you design a profile and tell the site what you’re in to – "what you love, hate, have and want." If you don’t find one of your favorites using the search function, you can create a page for it, which will be sent to PopBandit admin for approval. read more »

Wauwee - Mobile Chat and Image Share

Wauwee is a creation of 24access Solutions BV, a developer of two way computer to handheld solutions. Their newest solution, currently in beta, facilitates the sending and receiving of photos to your favorite social networks, blogs or friend’s desktops from your phone or your PC and also acts as an IM for chatting on the go. The signup procedure is pretty standard, just enter your name, email and a password and download the software, and then set up your profile which you can complete by uploading an avatar. read more »

Check out the printer we used for our business cards:

Source:CenterNetworks

MTV, Nickelodeon and Family World have announced plans to build a variety of virtual worlds over the next year. The initial worlds will include SpongeBob SquarePants along with new worlds MonkeyWorld and World of Neopia. The company noted that the new worlds will be developed out of Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group’s Virtual World Studios with the goal of launching new worlds each year.

The World of Neopia will build on the Neopets brand and game. The Neopets brand will also launch an Adobe AIR desktop application called PetPetPet Habitats.

The Nickelodeon brand currently has more than 5,000 games in their portfolio and comScore reports more than 20 million monthly game players.

The decision by the Australian government to institute filtering of the Internet at the ISP level to protect children from pornography and violent websites is being received with anger and comparisons to the Great Firewall of China. Of course, these critics are ignoring reality.

For starters, anyone can opt out of the filtering, which is simliar to what numerous European countries have mandated for years. Moreover, many ISPS already screen content. Why is this kicking up a fuss? Because of three predictable truths: Governments love to play nanny, Web-filtering software makers love to ring up sales, and bloggers love to bloviate about “freedom.” (Photo by Saad)

Source:Valleywag

The iTunes effect — or file-sharing, if you prefer — was in full force this holiday season. Album sales plunged 18 percent compared with pre-Christmas week sales in 2006. [Variety]

Source:Valleywag

Virtual worlds and big tobacco hold one strategy in common: hook ‘em young. It’s estimated some 20 million kids will congregate in virtual playgrounds by 2011. To capitalize on their addiction, a growing percentage of virtual architects are focusing on kiddie fare modeled after Webkinz and Club Penguin. Disney, Warner Bros., Viacom’s Nickelodeon, as well as Lego, Mattel, and Hasbro are milking cartoon and toy franchises for the stuff of kids’ virtual dreams. Disney’s launching Pixie Hollow, a fairy-themed world, in time for the release of Tinker Bell this fall. Disney, we have the perfect beta tester for you.

Blizzard has finally disproved the old adage that videogames rot your brains. In fact, they impart essential survival training on players. Earlier this month, 12-year-old Jørgen Olsen survived a moose attack in Norway by playing dead — a skill his World of Warcraft character had recently learned. And then the game taught a 17-year-old in Bejing how to deal with schoolyard bullies. After losing a fight, he took a cue from the game’s Fire Mage and set a match to his real-world opponent, after dousing him in gasoline.

The ironic stance, the knowing wink, the deadpan tone: They’ve all become cliche in Web-culture documentaries. Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin explodes the genre by taking footage of rampaging Santas and turning it into a music video. My prediction: Xeni’s confession, “I’m really freaked out,” will become a ringtone before the end of the year.

Source:Valleywag

The Second Life bubble may be popping. Electric Sheep, the marketing firm which helped CSI’s a virtual Gary Sinise parade through Linden Lab’s online world, is “rightsizing” the company — or shearing off 30 percent of its staff. A vice president explains that while Electric Sheep has seen tremendous growth and isn’t in any financial trouble, it decided to lay off 22 employees — mostly Second Life specialists. With its freshly trimmed staff, Electric Sheep will branch out to other virtual worlds platforms — ones advertisers haven’t already identified as unfruitful terrain.