Google launches Second Life rival: Lively
In yet another example of how Google’s 20% freedom program is driving innovation and experimentation, the company just announced a new application that may eventually rival Second Life. It’s called Lively, and the idea is to create a social network that’s more fun, and more immersive than traditional destinations like Facebook and MySpace.
Reserving 20% of an employee’s time for independent projects has certainly paid off for Google. Examples include Gmail, Google News, Orkut, Adsense, and now Lively. What’s the big draw? Lively promises to bring users one level closer to a real life experience while still in a virtual world.
Instead of just a voice or text conversation, Lively allows a visually rich experience where you can look at another person’s avatar and surroundings, learning about their personality without ever saying or asking a thing. Add in sound effects and animated emotes and the deal sounds better still.
Google has even continued with the spirit of remixing content by enabling YouTube videos to be contained in virtual televisions, and allowing web site owners to embed virtual worlds within their sites. Viral marketing anyone? It’s a good move, and will likely encourage adoption. Advertisers also might take more interest in YouTube as a compelling platform if it continues to show up in new mediums.
Lively creator Niniane Wang, Engineering Manager at Google describes it well when she says:
You can . . . express your own personality by customizing your avatar’s look, showing people who you are without having to say a word. Of course, you can chat with each other, and you can also interact through animated actions. In our user research, we’ve been amazed at how much more poignant it is to receive an animated hug than seeing the text “[[hug]]”.
I guess people in general feel more comfortable hugging in a virtual world than they do in a real world. But is it as satisfying?
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July 9th, 2008
I have been watching Googles developments for some time with interest. It will be interesting to see if an integration with Google Earth occurs.
July 10th, 2008
comparing Lively to Second Life is like comparing Yahoo Games to GTA 4 or Call of Duty 5