Where's my VRML?

Anyone remember when VRML was being touted as the "2D Web Killer"? I do. I laughed back then... of course, it was more because I thought nobody would take the time to learn it and that it'd be tough to get WYSIWYG web designers to ever consider.

Well, here we are years later. People are still programming flat (although 2.0 sites try lots of 3D shadows and the like) websites without that whole 3D interactive world. Granted, in 1998 I did play around with some 3D interactive stuff like this, but nothing like some of the VRML sites that came out that you could walk around to different buildings and the like.

While I still think there's a place for that (Second Life seems like a possibility, but it's much more flexible in an app you run), I don't see it happening any time soon. Oh, and this post can be credited to my bookcase, where I noticed one of the titles "Java, CGI, VRML and SGML". I think my wife got that one for a web development class once and she gave it to me when she got done with the class. It's gathered dust ever since.

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