20 November 2008

Google not so Lively now

Google has announced that its answer to the virtual world of Second Life, is about to shut up its virtual space for good even though Google Lively was only launched in July.

According to Google, the ill-fated Google Labs project was originally set up to allow users to interact with their friends and express themselves online in new ways. Users could create their own social networks and set up virtual spaces and design their own rooms, which could then be embedded into other social media such as blogs, Facebook pages, etc.

Unlike the successful Linden Labs virtual world, Second Life, which has a large established community and these days boasts over 35,000 users online at any one time, Lively failed to live up to its name. It never really gathered the following which Google had hoped for despite a large fanfare at its launch.

Launched at a time when even Second Life was encountering difficulties trying to expand, there appeared to be little real widespread appetite or chatter for the experiment after the first couple of weeks, and now it seems its fate has been sealed.

Google has stated on its blog, "It has been a tough decision, but we want to ensure that we prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business. Lively.com will be discontinued at the end of December, and everyone who has worked on the project will then move on to other teams.

"We'd encourage all Lively users to capture your hard work by taking videos and screenshots of your rooms."

It should be noted however that despite the closure of Lively at the end of the year, Second Life has reported an upsurge in its fortunes, suggesting that the recent plateau in their growth figures may be at an end, possibly giving Second Life another life yet.

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