You'd be surprised. There was an attempt in the early 90's to make a virtual world. Ever heard of world's?
http://worlds.com/
Do not let the website fool you, world's is very strange and the community seems to thrive on the weird. You can see a lot of left-overs from the 90s where companies tried to use it as part of their advertising: Aerosmith, Britney Spears, and Blaire Witch World. World's didn't catch on in the 90's and the company is now a patent troll but it was revolutionary for the time it as developed. If you want to check it out I recommend running it in a vm since it requires an outdated version of java to work. The server is still up.
Second life is an upgraded version of Worlds.
Virtual worlds have its place in simulations and modeling but when you want raw information you can't beat texts and videos. Why search through a virtual space when you can just go to google or use ctrl-f.