"It may be that our experience is engaging, but it doesn't require the user's 100% full attention, so they can multitask," Sherman explained. "You can use Gaia at the same time you're doing other things, like most teens like to do. That's one of the secrets to Gaia's success, we call it light immersion."

The social network users, while accessing the same Gaia, do only have limited access. It's the same Flash-driven environment, including avatars with speech bubbles a dance hall and a hangout space, but the social network portal doesn't open up to the rest of the world. Sherman is tight-lipped about whether the company will open up the social network portals to the rest of the virtual world, but he says it's under consideration.

Because while many users make the jump to the full-blown virtual world for more options and the chance to earn virtual currency goods--each day sees the close of 100,000 virtual goods marketplace, earning Gaia $1 million in virtual items sales per month--many stay in the smaller worlds. There's still too many benefits of working through the social network.

"That's one of our reasons we may decide to open up the world and make it broader for the users there,: Sherman said. "It shouldn't matter where they are once they're in. One of the reasons there's such a natural fit between virtual worlds and social networks is that teens want these spaces and hangouts with their friends. Social networks start by connecting with your friends and then you can explore these spaces. They make groups once they're inside. When they're in it, they connect."

The plan to tie together the social networks seems like a perfect dovetail with recent discussions to create interoperability between virtual worlds, but Sherman thinks that's still too far off.

"I think virtual worlds are significantly more complex and it's going to take a lot longer," he said. "They're more complex technologically and conceptually. There's the idea that you can move between distinct worlds that have their own currency and look and feel. I think it's intellectually fascinating, but I think it's a long way off."

Instead,  Gaia's recent investments from  Time Warner and Sony, which also brought strategic partnerships to distribute the media giants' film libraries inside of Gaia creates another possibility to tie the Internet together. With the rising buzz around video sites like Hulu that stream ad-supported television content over the Internet, it seems like Gaia is poised for a triple threat, uniting multiple social networks, video libraries, and a virtual world.

"I think it's already happening," said Sherman. "If you're on Bebo. you can go through the Bebo page into our world and watch the Matrix for free. It's working. It's absolutely working. A virtual world allows you to transform a viewing experience from a solitary experience into a social world. In the real world, it's more fun to watch TV and movies with your friends.  I think that'll be a natural connection with worlds like us. Users and teens will want the ability to watch that content and have the choice to watch it alone or watch it with their friends."