Well, this sucks for Second Life. Google is launching a new service today called Lively, a browser based virtual world add-on that lets users create and customize avatars and worlds, interact with other users, and generally have a richer social interaction than is offered by GTalk today.
Worlds can be embedded into web pages, although only Windows users on IE or Firefox can view them, after an add-on download and installation. Mac and Linux users will have to wait for now.
Google has created a number of sample rooms that can be copied and altered, or users can start from scratch and build their own world. Furniture and other items can be added and moved around. Avatars can talk to each other, do things like dance and shake hands, and manipulate objects (in a demo, my avatar was able to blow up drums of toxic waste by double clicking on them. Users can also, of course, chat with each other – GTalk is the underlying chat engine.
This isn’t yet a full Second Life competitor. There’s no single world, for example, where users can move around. But it’s easy to see Google evolving this into a single online world. And then, of course, selling advertising into it. More screen shots:
The virtual world’s “Google Room” is embedded below.
You’re talking about a stupid Google Talk-powered 3D avatar chat system instead of the ouster of VMWare’s CEO and their stock price’s implosion today?
Color me very unimpressed.
Promote your music with LivelyMyspace.com … lively meets Myspace
Cool, I use gmail, calendar, docs and now a second life! My first life has been a pain in the ass.
I have a gmail to it is sooooooooooooooo use ful I even have my own background
Ice cream style
Aaron – the vmware story is on techcrunchit.
what more richer than actual interaction?
hummmm…. now they’re trying to take on the virtual world too!
How could Google do this? Their business is in organizing and making data more accessible, not in dressing up avatars. Leave that to companies like SecondLife, and There. I have never hoped a Google product would fail more than I hope this one does. I’m personally outraged.
Google has finally finished its de-evolution into the “shiny things” network.
Looks like they’ve given up on making useful products. Shame.
Bye bye Vivaty!
Nevermind. This is better suited for my 12 year old daughter.
This is actually the worse news for RocketOn, and the investors who put up 25 million to do the exact same thing. And its still in Alpha. Poor guys.
http://www.tech...m/tag/rocketon/
I think this is less of a problem for Second Life. They’re totally different (if you’re one of those folks completely immersed in it). It does, however, pose more of a problem for http://imvu.com
I expected a more business-like approach from Google regarding a virtual world effort. Now, tie this into Google Earth with corresponding shops at corresponding addresses and you have corresponding lives. Second Life become the first one…only with a mohawk.
Oh god. Why ? Thanks but I don’t want my social interactions to be enriched by yet another plugin doing 3D bling bling. Hello! It’s not 1997 anymore.
Yay! Google finally gives us another reason to detach ourselves from our real social lives and rub our asses on Internet
No wonder why I love Google
another stupid app from google, in two weeks everyone will forget about it, even google itself.
Is this an all-Google product or is this the result of an acquisition they have made in the past?
another google misadventure!!
Another attempt – another semi failure. Anyway Google is Google. Sooner we will see houses made by Google. I’m waiting for the country to appear.
I’m confused…I thought Second Life and these virtual worlds (WoW and MMOGs excluded) were utter failures.
Can someone esplain this one to me?
I worry about the whole Goggle effect. It’s making me shiver….there is something odd about this whole “Take over the internet” thing.
When so much internet interactivity and productivity is linked to a shareholder driven global organisation well, you gotta ask where it is going.
Google wants to take oevr the internet and we are letting (have let) it happen. And we cried foul at IBM, then Microsoft…now Google. Trouble is, they are too big to stop…
When does competition endand control-freakery dressed up as technological altruism start….or has it already passed us by?
Dammit, Google. I finally know the plight of the small business crushed by the conglomerate. Why can’t they just stick with search and advertising? I just pray that this stays just chat and does not become a real MMO.
anyone who can’t see the difference between a google avatar or landscape and a second life avatar or landscape deserves google world. lol.
Two words:
Epic Fail
–Zendad–
http://www.zendad.net
It just crashes for me…
Sounds like they’ve already mothballed it.
I feel like I’m one of the few semi-regular commenters and frequent readers of Techcrunch that has an open mind about the idea of virtual worlds. I just wrote a lengthy comment debunking Eric’s obviously biased and uninformed view of the inter-platform teleporting by Second Life avatars to OpenSim servers from within the Second Life client.
Yes, I will try this Google thing when I get home. I’m not one to dismiss things out of hand without taking time to understand them.
However, in any case this is not an “uh oh, Second Life” moment. At most, Google creates a free web-world(versus virtual world) that more people use and puts all of the crappy 3rd party web-world startups out of business. Google increases exposure to people to the concept of virtual worlds. This isn’t a threat to Second Life, its a help.
Second Life, as the current “platform du jour” for being the most open and widely adopted virtual world, allows users an nearly unlimited amount of room to build, create, play, and interact with each other. SL has allowed many people to start small successful businesses based entirely within the platform, myself included.
All I have seen from this video of Lively similar 3rd party products is the ability to walk around in pre-defined “areas”, chat in bubbles, and move furniture and paintings around. (Yes, this video specifically demos the ability to *move furniture around*).
Where is the ability to create and upload content? Can I take a known language like Javascript to script objects in Lively? Granted, I can’t use Javascript in Second Life but I know LSL like the back of my hand and have become quite adept with it over the years. The fact is, they provide a programmable language in Second Life.
The important point here is that Google and everyone else is *missing the point*. What are the most popular virtual worlds nowadays?
Kids – Habbo Hotel. basic cartoon characters, games, limited ability to create content. MASSIVE adoption
Adults – Second Life. Nearly limitless ability to customize avatars. Completely open ability to create content(includes content upload, built-in scripting language), ownership rights to content created on their platform. Ability to socialize via traditional text and voice(VOIP). Adoption comprised of nearly 100% adult members around the world. Total number of regular users limited to around 1.5 million per month. Teen grid available, but barely used in comparison to adult Second Life.
Teenagers/Adults – World of Warcraft. No content creation capability. Limited number of character/avatar options. Text-chat. Main focus is game-play and not creation. Adoption? MASSIVE.
This says something. The financially successful virtual worlds among adults are games like WoW and interaction/content creation platforms like Second Life. These pale in comparison to the number of children that are interacting via much simpler platforms like Habbo Hotel. These kids represent a coming tide of users in the 2015-2020 time frame that are growing up interacting with each other via virtual worlds. They will want much more sophisticated ones as they enter adulthood.
The adults of the current generation are already proving they are interested in 2 things. Socializing via straight game play, and socializing via an open system where they can create and experiment.
There isn’t a ton of evidence that these 2 drivers are going to change that much in the near future. I think this means that if you can make a virtual world into a fun game, people flock. If you let them create, people flock.
But Google’s Lively, other 3rd party web-worlds, Sony Home, There, and others are just about chatting via cartoons. Sure, in some cases very pretty and well done environments like Home, but still just chatting via cartoons.
They have simply not caught the same kind of fire that WoW, Habbo, and SL have. My initial guess about Lively will be that it too will be a failure as much as Orkut was, beyond minor adoption in non-major markets. (No offense to Brazil, just making a point.)
If you want to make something that becomes important, follow the path. Make it fun, let people interact, and let people create. That’s all you need to do.
I don’t get it. How does this fit with who Google is?
That was interesting for about the same amount of time as the install took
Whenever Google enters a new space, they always put a new spin on it. It’ll be interesting to see what happens as Lively matures.
James
blog.jvf.com
Hmm… No mention about Facebook in the article. If you go into the Help and check stuff out it mentions that you can get into Lively via Facebook using your Facebook account. There are even a FAQ item about merging your Facebook and Google account: http://twurl.nl/s5gfrq
This thing is in no way comparable to Second Life.
It looks like an IMVU competitor and other 3d-chat startups.
Boy, I sure hope I can embed my Lively avatar into my Orkut page! Maybe I can use Froogle to shop for virtual items…
Another pointless thing from Google? If they keep this up, I might just have to rely more on Windows Live to bring real, worthy products.
On more thing – the login authentication’s gotta go through facebook somehow. I’m getting server errors when I try to log in to Lively. Facebook is blocked here at work, but all other Google services are open. So I can only assume that my corporate filters are blocking the login request because it’s going to Facebook.
Huh?
This has got to be a belated April Fool’s joke.
Is this really the next most important thing on the list in order to “organize the world’s information”, or is this simply the result of a random interest in virtual worlds, the result of a 20% project?
Those who think Google can do no wrong need to think again… I don’t understand at all how this fits in even remotely with Google’s primary mission.
Wow, I can’t believe Google built this – it actually looks pretty nice. Maybe they finally hired some graphic designers.
Another misfire and fail from Google.
Besides search and ads, they can’t produce a single worthwhile product.
Besides complaining about perks, you really have to wonder what the heck most of the “geniuses” at Google are up to.
I expect Android to be a dud too.
“Worlds can be embedded int web pages, although only Windows users on IE or Firefox can view them, after an add-on download and installation. Mac and Linux users will have to wait for now.”
WTF is up with dissing the Mac/Linux crowd with this? Why would I screw around with this when more than 80 percent of the readers of my weblog use Macs?
@Raskin: Second Life’s creator, Linden Lab, is a profitable company that’s got an amazing amount of press and attention over the past few years, growing exponentially. I would call that an “utter failure”, would you?
This won’t compete with Second Life. I have a two question litmus test for what a Second Life competitor needs: (1) Can you get naked? (2) Can you be something other than human? Until there is a virtual world where the answer to both is yes, you’re talking about ones without enough creativity allowed (think Disney) to attract the same market that Second Life does.
The most hard core SL users are very creative types who like to look on the VW as a blank canvas and don’t like Disney-like restrictions.
Regards,
-Flip
Why Google does it? Because there will be people (if only kiddies in this case) in there and where there’s people there’s socializing and a great place for advertisement – but not stupid banners and annoying Flash layers. A three-dimensional space to be filled with products and ads you can’t click away…
I think @40 nails it.
People in Lively rooms encourages participation, and participation means loitering, and while you’re there you will inevitably be fooling around with virtual “products.”
Agree with @Xanich, what on (Google) earth is this about???
Just to remind Sergey and Larry and everyone else at the ‘plex;
“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
How does this help me organise information? I can’t see that this is going anywhere, as others have pointed out Second Life is pretty much the ‘Google’ of virtual worlds, so I don’t know what value this has.
One simple and useful thing that this could do that is not done well by second life is to host large groups for things like product launches or lectures. Arguably has more to do with their mission.
You can play youtube videos and display picasa photos, so it should be quite easy to host such an event. And the fact that the locations are URL based means that people who don’t hang out in virtual worlds very much will be able to find it easily.
Windows only? Yuck
Second Life competitor? Yucker
Erm, I thought Second Life had already died.
Google has just “Jumped the Shark”
werent we feeling sorry for YouTube boys when google started google videos?
Google shareholders should be very afraid
This is competition for Habbo Hotel. Not Second Life.
Yikes. When it comes to VW worlds, techcrunch is very very clueless.
I think Google is wasting their time with these frivolous inventions. When are we going to see something really meaningful and useful from them again? They should be releasing stuff like aviary or sliderocket. not this childish chat crap,