Virtual universe: What is metaverse and how will it work?

The term “metaverse” is the latest buzzword to capture the tech industry’s imagination, so much so that one of the best-known internplatforms is rebranding to signal its embrace of the futuristic idea.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that he’s changing his company’s name to Meta Platforms Inc., or Meta for short, might be the biggest thing to happen to the metaverse since science fiction writer Neal Stephenson coined the term for his 1992 novel “Snow Crash.”