Abstract: Systems and methods for social networking and digital media aggregation represented as a three-dimensional virtual world within a standard web browser are described. In one embodiment, multiple, independent groups of users interact with each other inside a dynamic, three-dimensional virtual environment. These groups may be mutually exclusive and members interact only with other members within the same group. In this manner, system architecture and server requirements may be greatly reduced, since consistent environmental state needs to be maintained only for a small number of interacting participants—typically less than one dozen.