09. Jul. 2008, 11:34 | NEW WORLD OPENS
A Lively launch from Google
COMPUTER giant Google has finally moved into the metaverse by launching its own virtual world.
The 3D area called Lively will be viewable through a web browser but also requires a download before it will function.
Users can create their own virtual room and embed them on a blog or website before using them to communicate with friends. Avatars can be personalised, and photos and videos can be streamed into the world.
Common concept
Niniane Wang, engineer manager for the project, said: "It's integrated with the internet. It's not an alternate destination. Our intention is to add to your existing life."
But Epredator Potato, a prominent member of IBM's metaverse team, said on his blog: "I have to say it's not quite what I was expecting from Google as the social room on a web page is quite a common concept already."
Have your say
5Comments
- Posted at 10. Jul. 2008, 10:21 — by KrakenUramen
I have to say, honestly, that I've not expected this kind of virtualization. Being Google what it is, this service is kinda deceptive. It resembles to me Adobe Atmosphere, the 3D web builder that never made something prominent into industry. I liked it a lot, but... you know the history. They simply abandoned the project because it was too expensive for the company.
- Posted at 11. Jul. 2008, 05:08 — by SoapClawtooth
I do however see the potential for much expansion in the future. If anybody is going to be the first to intergrate a 3d application with web 3.0, it will most certainly be Google through the Medium of Lively
I expect that over the coming years we will see lively evolve into something much more than it is now. - Posted at 12. Jul. 2008, 16:24 — by SoapClawtooth
Deceptive now, perhaps. But what of the long run? I expect google sees the marketing potential in creating healthy competition through a second Second Life and I expect that this is just the first tiny step toward that goal. Early days to be sure, but what about two to three years from now?
- Posted at 12. Jul. 2008, 16:24 — by SoapClawtooth
Deceptive now, perhaps. But what of the long run? I expect google sees the marketing potential in creating healthy competition through a second Second Life and I expect that this is just the first tiny step toward that goal. Early days to be sure, but what about two to three years from now?
- Posted at 19. Sep. 2008, 02:10 — by GwynethLlewelyn
Two months later, Google's Lively is basically forgotten. The most visited room (Google's own) has little more than 1000 non-unique visitors per day (they count returning visitors more than once). About a 100,000 rooms were created in the first week; after two months, only about 60,000 new ones were added.
So suddenly we're seeing the SL-haters crowd, who was abandoning SL for "a better world", to turn back and come humbly to ask forgiveness and be accepted again in SL. It'll be interesting to see the results of Virtual World Fall '08 and the SIGGRAPH — after the spring edition told everybody that Virtual Worlds were for kids and teens, and should be Flash-embedded rooms on web pages, it seems that after half a year people come back to SL instead, disappointed with what they see on the "other virtual worlds".
It's too early to tell, but I think that another small victory was won for SL.
