The Business & Social Network

Impact of Google Lively

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google has rolled out a challenge to virtual world giant Second Life with free software that lets people create their own online 3D worlds that can be embedded on websites and melded with other online functions.

Lively by Google lets people place virtual "rooms" on websites, customize "avatars" to be online proxies, and decorate their fantasy worlds with photos or streaming videos from YouTube, Picasa or other online sources.

With Lively, a user can adapt his personal online realm to his own imagination. Examples shown include hip flats, sprawling ranches, and rooftops backed by cityscapes.

Lively users can invite friends' avatars over for visits by sending them online room addresses via email or instant messages, according to Google engineering manager Niniane Wang.
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Any thoughts?

Tags: Free, Google, Lively

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Permalink Reply by Notorious ChickaFlicka on July 9, 2008 at 11:04am

We have been waiting and watching for this.
IMVU best be watching very closely.

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Permalink Reply by Miranda on July 9, 2008 at 11:11am

My initial reaction to this was to wonder why it has taken so long for Google to come up with this kind of project.

My next thought was this will set a large fire under the seats of a number of 3D chat companies.

This strikes me as an as yet very immature project, that does, however, have huge potential.

The instant reaction in the press, ill informed as it so often is, is that such a Google project is a threat to Second Life.

It isn't.

I should think that there will be meetings taking place in the offices of Habbo, IMVU and a number of other companies whose product is more 3d chat orientated, as they try to foresee the effect that this little program will have on their revenue and customer bases, because it is this segment of the web that Google are targeting.

If this doesn't take off....I'd be very surprised indeed.

MM

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Permalink Reply by Debbie Swee on July 9, 2008 at 11:50am

Hi Miranda,

Interesting comments. I don't know that much about Habbo and the chat-oriented VWs as you categorized them to be.

But it seems that the application Google is aiming at is quite different from Second Life and the other social VWs. It is much more like the way Cyworld in Korea operates. And given that Google has quite a bit of clout worldwide, I would be very curious to see how far Lively will take off.

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Permalink Reply by Miranda on July 9, 2008 at 11:55am

Have a look at what is, in my opinion at least, the best of the more immediate applications, Debbie.

www.imvu.com

I'm mirandamarquez ( Queen of the unimaginative nic, I know )

I'd be happy to show you around.

MM

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Permalink Reply by Alto Xeno on August 6, 2008 at 1:28am

I agree, Lively is more like Cyworld (which is in Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and the U.S. the last time I looked) -- a "chat" oriented social application. Did you know that Cyworld is second to iTunes (in global terms) in online music sales?

In the near term Habbo, IMVU, Club Penguin and similar social worlds might face competition from Lively. I don't see Second Life or other "user built" worlds being threatened by it ... not yet, anyway.

More on how I classify the various worlds here.
- Alto

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Permalink Reply by Dave Elchoness on July 9, 2008 at 12:44pm

I like Lively. At first I had some difficulty figuring out how to control and customize my avatar, but now I am really liking it more and more. I'm clearly not the target demographic, but I had fun looking through the various rooms, trying to create one of my own, and chatting with other avatars. The integration of various sites and the website etc is somewhat disjointed, in my opinion, but all in all, Google has done a nice job of entering the space.

I've seen some criticism by followers of virtual worlds to the effect that Lively doesn't represent a leap forward for virtual worlds worthy of a company like Google. To the contrary, in my view, although Lively itself is not a tremendous departure from existing technologies, Google's recognition of the industry with an investment and launch of this kind signifies the emergence of virtual worlds in the mainstream. Should Google wish, Lively, and whatever follows it, can be added to the 'search' page and therefore be ubiquitous -- a new Google interface, perhaps. Big stuff.

To be sure, if Lively is successful, and I expect that it will be, Google will use the experience it's gained here and the data it's collected, to push deeper into the metaverse. The Google Earth-based augmented reality that many of us think about can't be far behind.

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Permalink Reply by KatsBits on July 10, 2008 at 10:18am

The one thing Google has always been good at is 'user interfacing' and Lively is no exception, character movement is so simple and easy to pick up. I'd also have to agree that interactive Google Earth can't be that far behind.