A Requiem for Google Lively

(image by whitedavepaint)

I was mildly distraught to hear of the imminent demise of Google's nascent 'Lively' - a mini-Second Life like room you could paste into a blog page (much like pasting in a Youtube video) which Google have now announced they'll be taking out the back and humanely putting down just in time for Christmas.

If the future of e-learning is going to be largely based in virtual environments, Lively seemed like the perfect solution. Not for immersive simulations, but possibly for socialisation spaces. Given that the Second Life bubble has finaly burst (and mega-corps like Reuters have finally figured out that SL is all fur coat and no knickers) I would have thought that Google may have given this longer. Alas no.

Lively, we knew ye well.

Google release 'Lively' chat rooms

Google seem mighty proud of their latest creation, 'Lively' a 3-D chat room facility which can be plugged into any other webpage. That means that I could (if one were inclined) add a 'Lively chat room on this network. It all seems a bit 'Second Life', but this is one to keep an eye on - if only to see where Google's social media strategy is going. From the Ars Technica review:

'Unveiled on Google's blog with the disclaimer that it was a "20 percent" project, Lively is designed to be a portable 3D space where users can build rooms and interact with visitors via avatars. "Second Life in a web browser" is an applicable analogy, though Google appears to have made sure that rooms and user activities remain in the G to PG range. Each room can be linked with a unique URL—I Hate Ewoks and Lively: Google Room are two good examples—or even embedded in a website through an iframe.

"If you enter a Lively room embedded on your favorite blog or website," Google's Niniane Wang said in the announcement post, "you can immediately get a sense of the room creator's interests, just by looking at the furniture and environment they chose." Apparently, a WordPress theme, Flickr photosteam widget, and a Twitter Flash badge aren't enough to show off one's personality anymore; we need to know people's architectural preferences as well. '



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