With Lively, Google tries its own 'Second Life'
Google's Lively is a Web-based project similar to Second Life. This shows a re-creation of Google headquarters, complete with the T. Rex skeleton.
Update 8:17 p.m. PDT: Google amended one Lively detail: the application for MySpace is under development but not yet ready. Also, I corrected a name misspelling.
Google on Tuesday plans to unveil an online 3D social arena called Lively, the Internet giant's take on Second Life. But Google wants it to be part of your first life.
Second Life requires users to download and install a separate "client" software package that taps into the online world. Lively also requires a download and installation--Windows only for now--but then people can use Internet Explorer or Firefox to enter the virtual world.
"It's integrated with the Internet. It's not an alternate destination," said Niniane Wang, Google's engineering manager for the project. "Our intention is to add to your existing life."
Integration with the ordinary Internet takes several forms. For one thing, you can pipe in content hosted elsewhere on the Internet, including photos or videos. For another, you can embed your Lively area into your blog or, using widgets Google has written, on Facebook Web pages now and MySpace pages later. And you can e-mail your friends a normal Web address to get them to join.
With Lively, you can set up you own online spaces--rooms, grassy meadows, desert islands, or, in the demo version I tried, simulated Silicon Valley office parks. You can change the clothing or form of your avatar (that's your online incarnation, for those of you who missed the Second Life hype). And of course you can chat, do backflips, shake hands, and give high-fives.
The idea is to bring a better social dimension to online interaction, Wang said--something more sophisticated for expressing oneself than an emoticon on an instant-messenger status line.
"We think there is a desire to socialize in this way," Wang said, suggesting that's why Second Life got so much attention when it blossomed in popularity a couple years ago. "We hope this product will help them do that."
Integration with the Internet is indeed a significant departure from the Internet, but much of the Lively sales pitch will sound--how to put this politely--familiar to those who've already read virtual worlds press releases from years past.
I had a number of burps and hiccups using Lively in my demo on a somewhat elderly but by no means ancient laptop, problems Wang said weren't widespread. When it's working correctly, it took a little while to master the controls for moving the perspective and my avatar around.
After that, the novelty wore off even more rapidly than with Second Life. I'm sure it would have been more exciting with somebody else to talk to than a mock-up of Google's T. Rex skeleton, and perhaps if it were a room that I designed myself.
Don't get me wrong. I remain a believer, overall, in this form of online interaction, however socially stunted it may feel compared with, say, a singles bar. I just think the technology has a ways to go. I found Second Life more immersive, but even so, even the relatively crude communications enabled by e-mail and instant messaging did more to revolutionize my online social interactions.
A few other differences from Second Life: Lively doesn't have money. It's designed to be easier to use, with a drag-and-drop interface. And it's not programmable, at least yet, so you can only select furniture, clothes, hairstyles, and such from the prefabricated catalog Google supplies.
Money and programmability are both items the company is seriously considering, though, Wang said. A Mac OS X client also is a high priority, she added.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
(Disclosure: I don't even own a Mac, but that doesn't change my view.)
If you are still using Windows, you are probably either:
1) a non-reader :-) or
2) using what some corporate non-reader TOLD you to use! :-)
Popular Mechanics determined that the fastest platform for Vista is Mac, if you have any desire to run Vista... :-)
Mac OS X (10.5 aka Leopard) is however considered standardized by OpenGroup under the UNIX 03 product certification...
http://www.opengroup.org/comm/press/19-2-nov07.htm
Ironically the name is Vivaty , in Spanish "(life/live)-ly" funny eh?
I agree with Stephen - IM and email are far more social than this sort of thing.
And will the Apple fanboys please shut up - "A Mac OS X client also is a high priority, she added. " is a very frail invitation to go MS bashing.
I've been in Second Life for almost 4 years now. My lil' business/hobby pays for itself PLUS a little extra (enough to pay off a credit card bill).
Lively DOES look like a perfect place for those looking for just plain ol' socializing tho. Nothing fancy, nothing requiring a learning curve. Just enjoy yourself. I'll probably try it eventually.
By clearly positioning it as being "linked to the Internet" they're also linking it to existing social networks, search queries, and other online behaviour. Their terms of service are quite clear: it's intention is to be advertiser funded:
17.1 Some of the Services are supported by advertising revenue and may display advertisements and promotions. These advertisements may be targeted to the content of information stored on the Services, queries made through the Services or other information.
With control over the content of the rooms, including "scrubbing" it of offensive content, if they can migrate social networks to include embedded 3D spaces, they can provide a safe environment for brands - think IKEA couches with embedded Web links, or think TV sets running ads and movie trailers from youTube. As a social networking play it has merit. Unlike some of their competitors, they'll have a deeper ability to target ads to these embedded rooms because they'll be able to cross-tab your space with your search queries with your search history - you need a Google account afterall to access the rooms.
As a virtual world play it doesn't ad much to the Metaverse - the technology is crisp, clean and light thought still buggy and sure, doesn't support Macs. Speculation had been that there would be a link to Google Earth, which isn't to say that one day you won't be able to click on a "virtual room icon" on a Google Earth match-up, but it's hardly Snow Crash or the matrix - it's 3D chat, supported by advertisers and, ironically, it may do more for worlds like Second Life than Second Life can do on its own - giving new users the chance to orient to the ideas of avatars and virtual spaces until they long for something more and say, "yeah, but show me a REAL world."
Lengthier comments, sorry for cross link, here: http://dusanwriter.com/?p=713
It's good to see Google now wanting to compete with Second Life. I find Second Life, particularly in the avatar customization area, to be clunky and inaccessible unless you want to plop down serious money just to get yourself looking decent. I think there's a lot of room for innovation in this field, and Linden Labs looks to be burnt out. I'd be willing to give Google's entry a try just like I gave to Second Life. Hopefully Google keeps my attention longer since Second Life only managed to ever frustrate me or leave me feeling lost. I'm sure other people have had different experiences, but these are mine.
check out www.kaneva.com
In addition to having sex you also have rays(virtual money) that can be traded for real money, they have product placements with links to the real world web sites and the world has this really freaky fun park with mazes and puzzles to solve. You can fly, skate, dance, watch videos in the clubs, smoke, drink, strip, swim, run, tones of clothes, tattoos, piercings and other body mods. They have an affiliate program and a blog/forum site attached to it for traditional threaded conversations. All in all it rocks. Google can't do the adult thing most likely but hopefully the graphics are x-box quality.
I don't play computer games either, no time, and it makes you fat. Yes fat.
This is interesting but the Real world is a much better full contact "social interaction";-)
www.FireMe.To/udi
- by markbyrn July 13, 2008 6:37 AM PDT
- Comparing this first iteration of Lively to Second Life or other similar MMO's is akin to comparing Tic-Tac-Toe to Chess; Lively has no ability to create or script content, no virtual economy, and no other avatar activities beyond setting up the look of your avatar & room with with some developer provided content and chat. At best, Lively has put in a future placeholder to resemble a crude likeness of Second Life should they go beyond this first iteration. For what is though, Lively is a surprisingly easy to use virtual 3d chat and will probably pull in more people who don't want to deal with the complexities, cost, or constant technical frustrations of Second Life. I'd love to see Google take over Second Life and send the inept management and technical staff of Linen Labs packing.
- Reply to this comment
-
Showing 1 of 2 pages (28 Comments)