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

Davey Winder
Wednesday, 09 July 2008 14:21

Business IT - Networking

You only have to think about Gmail, Google Maps, Google Earth and you can see what I mean. Where, on the other hand, is the innovation in Lively? Where, indeed, is the must have functionality? Adding avatars to chat, great, how very last year. Google is not even playing catch up here, it is acting like a spoilt kid who wants one of those because someone else has got one.

It will argue that it makes joining the world easier by virtue of not requiring a separate client application like Second Life, but rather just runs in your browser. Great, tell Mac users how you have made such an easy to use world then Google.

Still, Lively is free. Free to download, free to use and free from contextual advertising. For now.

In fairness, like so many Google services, Lively is still in Beta. Unlike most other products that get this far, it still looks like a Beta though. The awkward user interface, lack of any real environment to explore, Windows only usage and there are reports of it crashing Firefox online as well.

Lively? More like Google Tired...