Second Life losing lock on virtual-site marketing; As users and brands head to startups, giant...

Byline: ANDREW HAMPP

ahampp@adage.com

if you want to take your brand virtual, you don't need to get a Second Life. In fact, the virtual world, along with some other social-networking sites, is already starting to seem a little old-fashioned.

As any 14-year-old will tell you, the true measure of a pop star's popularity is how many friends he has on MySpace. And as far as friends goes, megastar rapper 50 Cent's got plenty of `em-more than 908,000. But even 50 knows he's going to have to harness more than just a well-organized MySpace contingent to