I remember this being somewhat associated with the rise of Java and the adoption of XML as a serialization format for the Java platform. There was an accompanying trend in which XML became the hammer with which to strike all the illusory nails, VR being one of them. I was always impressed by the degree to which things in the XML and web standards space were over engineered and abstract. It makes me think of that quote in which a famous mathematician (can't remember who, Hilbert maybe?) said that the point of mathematics was to avoid saying anything about anything. So too for a certain kind of engineering except we end up avoiding doing anything.
VRML isn't based on XML - the syntax is all curly brackets and spaces. The name was definitely an attempt to ride the XML hype train though. In a way, VRML was to XML as JavaScript was to Java.
Interesting, I had no idea. I stand corrected on that detail. But yeah, my comment was about the sense of hype I remember about certain technologies as they rose to popularity. I remember there was almost this funny sense that XML would solve everything. And it was connected to this broader sense at the time (owing to the dot com bubble) that technology would solve everything. Really interesting to look back on all that through the lens of time.
