Lively Google launches 3D me-too-avatar-world

Davey Winder
Wednesday, 09 July 2008 14:21

Business IT - Networking

Google has launched Lively, an immersive 3D world populated by avatars and which lets you create your own space in which to chat. Sound familiar? So just what is Google doing jumping aboard the Second Life bandwagon?

Niniane Wang, an engineering manager at Google, finally announced the biggest secret that everyone already knew about when an official Google Blog posting declared "Be who you want on the web pages you visit."

Sure, a little cryptic maybe, but the rest of the announcement didn't exactly make a lot of sense either. "A while ago, I looked around the social web and wished that it could be less static" Wang says "what if you want to express yourself in a more fun way, with 3D graphics and real-time avatar interactions?"

To which everyone outside of Google responds with a resounding: we visit Second Life, There.com or IMVU thanks very much.

But nevertheless, Google has not been able to resist the me-too-avatar urge and has launched its own immersive 3D chat space in the form of Lively which it promises will allow you to "express yourself with and without words." It's a shame that Google is not expressing itself with words just a little bit more clearly.

The difference between Lively and Second Life is that this is a 3D environment that you do not visit, but is embedded within your blog or website. The whole 'chat in a room your create' thing. Indeed, Wang reckons that as soon as you enter a Lively room you can "immediately get a sense of the room creator's interests, just by looking at the furniture and environment they chose."

Has Google ever heard of Second Life? Read on to find out...

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