DailyTech - Google: Not Looking So Lively Anymore

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Internet Google: Not Looking So Lively Anymore
Jason Mick (Blog) - November 20, 2008 12:40 PM

33 comment(s) - last by JoKeRr.. on Nov 21 at 10:06 PM

Google Lively users are very sad to hear that their custom avatars (like this one) and custom made rooms will be taken offline at the end of the year when Google pulls the plug on the free MMO service. (Source: Google)

Google terminates 3D virtual world; one of company's few outright failures

When it comes to Google, the company can seemingly do no wrong. From Google Docs to its much-talked-about Chrome browser, the company seems to cover all the common sense bases. It even showcases seemingly crazy applications like Google Flu Trends or Google Goggles (a program to stop you from sending drunken emails).

However, even a company as unusually successful as Google is bound to have a couple of failures in tough economy times such as these. So, while it was a bit shocking when Google announced the death of its "Lively" online world, it should not be considered entirely unexpected.

The free virtual environment was an intriguing experiment, but failed to garner mass support. Users could download the beta of the program and create custom avatars and rooms they could invite other users to enter. Unique locations such as Jen's coffee house and the Brasil Party room quickly popped up.

However, despite the enthusiasm of some users, like many MMO (massively multiplayer online) efforts the problem of too few overall users could not be overcome. Google announced that it would be pulling the plug on the beta of the Lively service December 31, 2008.

No explanation was offered, but Google did thank users for their enthusiasm.

States the Lively homepage, humbly:

Thank you for sharing this experience with us. We've learned a lot about how users interact in rich social environments, and we hope you've enjoyed your time with Lively.

Many in the online community are left to ponder its sudden demise and what possible meaning it could have for Google. Many share the same sentiment -- "Rest in peace, Lively, we hardly knew you."

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Lively? Never heard of it.

By therealnickdanger on 11/20/2008 12:45:59 PM , Rating: 3

Was this an attempt to spoof Xbox Live? I'm serious, I've never heard of this service until now... I might have tried it. Anyway, where did you get that awesome picture of the old man (I assume he's laughing)? LOL

RE: Lively? Never heard of it.

By Cobra Commander on 11/20/2008 12:48:56 PM , Rating: 1

Never heard of it either but I'm not hanging off Google's left nut like some bloggers apparently are.

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RE: Lively? Never heard of it.

By afkrotch on 11/20/2008 1:17:26 PM , Rating: 3

WTF is Lively? If majority of ppl never heard of it, that's one reason of it's failure.

Anyways, sounds like a knockoff of Second Life, Mii Parades, or PS Home. Course every MMO has the ability to chat using 3D avatars in a 3D environment.

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RE: Lively? Never heard of it.

By Chadder007 on 11/20/2008 1:25:21 PM , Rating: 2

Heck I haven't heard of it either. That's probably the main reason for failure.

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RE: Lively? Never heard of it.

By mvpx02 on 11/20/2008 3:29:46 PM , Rating: 2

My thoughts exactly

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RE: Lively? Never heard of it.

By Adonlude on 11/20/2008 4:43:14 PM , Rating: 2

Maybe it was kinda like a Google version of Second Life? Just heard of it today as well and I only heard about Second Life from this site also.

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RE: Lively? Never heard of it.

By mixpix on 11/21/2008 5:27:41 AM , Rating: 2

Never heard of it either But Google's offerings are badly organized. It's bad enough that have through a few menu clicks just to get to their Chrome browser, talk about making it hard to find.

quote:
However, even a company as unusually successful as Google is bound to have a couple of failures in tough economy times such as these.

HOW are economic issues really to blame for this??? Seriously I swear people just start using the latest blanket excuse for why things are going wrong. No one used it... they stopped developing it... big deal.

Hmm, I guess I seem kinda negative about this, but it's not meant to be that way. Just seeing it in my own way.

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RE: Lively? Never heard of it.

By mixpix on 11/21/2008 5:36:06 AM , Rating: 2

I really shouldn't be trying to make complete sentences at 3AM. Excuse the sentence structure screw ups. Thanks.

"Never heard of it either, but Google's offerings are badly organized. It's bad enough to go through a few menu clicks just to get to their Chrome browser. Talk about making it hard to find."

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RE: Lively? Never heard of it.

By geddarkstorm on 11/20/2008 1:11:44 PM , Rating: 3

Seriously. Not enough support by the masses? That's what happens when you never, ever mention something.

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RE: Lively? Never heard of it.

By JonnyDough on 11/20/2008 10:56:08 PM , Rating: 2

Not to mention it was a BETA. Why mention a BETA? Why does Google have so many betas? Product search (formally known as Froogle) is also a beta still. WTF?

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RE: Lively? Never heard of it.

By geddarkstorm on 11/21/2008 1:08:53 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Why mention a BETA?

Because Google did so for its gmail and Chrome: they are both betas yet heavily talked about. Heck, not too long ago I was browsing through the entire list of Google stuff and didn't even see this Lively. Talk about stuffing something in a dark corner.

Google has a thing for keeping stuff "beta" - either to maintain a certain amount of leeway between them and users, or an attitude that it'll continually work to improve its project to some mysterious standard.

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RE: Lively? Never heard of it.

By JonnyDough on 11/21/2008 4:04:41 PM , Rating: 1

Well, IMO that's stupid. Any user who knows what a BETA means knows that BETA Max went the way of the Dodo. It is in your best interest NOT to use BETA products, because they're either A) Going to get updated with a version that has fixes applied soon, or B) Not going to cut it.

Even if a lot of people had seen it, how many would have passed over it without bothering? It's like Froogle. If you go looking for Froogle and misspell it, you might never even find "Google Product Search", which is they name they are using now. If you saw that Froogle was Beta, you may have gone to Shop.com instead.

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RE: Lively? Never heard of it.

By RamarC on 11/20/2008 2:07:49 PM , Rating: 2

i was unaware also.

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RE: Lively? Never heard of it.

By Quiescent on 11/20/2008 2:33:00 PM , Rating: 2

I was also unaware. I love google products, and unfortunately there are so many out there that the only ones I use are the ones that are easy to use and mentioned. I use Google Chrome, Gmail, Orkut (Which I never heard of until my brazil friend told me about it), Analytics, I used Blogger, but didn't really like it. I also don't like Google Docs. It's online, I prefer to be able to load it whether I'm on or offline. It's also in a browser. I really don't care for my Excel or Word to be loaded in a browser.

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RE: Lively? Never heard of it.

By cochy on 11/20/2008 4:01:57 PM , Rating: 2

Nope. Never heard of it.

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RE: Lively? Never heard of it.

By nitrous9200 on 11/20/2008 10:52:05 PM , Rating: 2

Same, I think I remember hearing about it once but never actually used it. But when I read the article title I thought Google might be going down the drain.

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RE: Lively? Never heard of it.

By Wagnbat on 11/21/2008 4:26:49 AM , Rating: 2

Agreed. I've never heard of it. How can you get users, when your target audience has no clue it exists?

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I tried it

By Spivonious on 11/20/2008 12:49:41 PM , Rating: 3

I tried it and it was the stupidest thing I've ever seen.

It was essentially a chatroom in 3D, which made it hard to see what people were saying unless you had the camera positioned just right. You could also sit on sofas and chairs. Sorry, but I think Google lost sight of the main point of a chatroom -> to communicate!

RE: I tried it

By chmilz on 11/20/2008 1:06:15 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
I think Google lost sight of the main point of a chatroom -> to communicate

Have you met anyone in high school lately? They carry the worlds most high-tech communications gear in their pockets, but can barely form legible sentences.

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RE: I tried it

By afkrotch on 11/20/2008 1:19:37 PM , Rating: 2

Maybe Japanese high school kids carry the tech. Anyways, the point of chatrooms is to meet and chat with ppl around the world, not just within your neighborhood, high school, city, etc.

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RE: I tried it

By dever on 11/20/2008 1:26:47 PM , Rating: 1

Legible to you and I, perhaps. But, there's a huge amount of social communication that requires more effort than most of us (old fogies) care to muster any longer. It's possible they communicate better than we do, they just don't care to communicate with us.

The extreme focus of high schoolers on the most subtle of communication, is often revealed in it's detrimental effects of other studies... i.e. school. Once past that stage, people tend to focus a little more on being able to communicate with a wider audience and the overall importance of what is being communicated rather than just being able to communicate with peers.

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RE: I tried it

By Ammohunt on 11/20/2008 2:07:59 PM , Rating: 2

As poor as the educational system is in America; Along with the utter shallowness taught to kids these days by their parents what makes you think they have anything worth listening too no matter how efficient their communication has become. I fear the worst the last few generations have never known hard times and hard times are upon us.

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RE: I tried it

By Quiescent on 11/21/2008 4:46:15 AM , Rating: 2

Fortunately for me, I have learned the tip of the iceberg of hard times. So combined with my observational skills and whatnot, I think I might be able to go through tough times much better than my peers. (I'm an American female who is 19)

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RE: I tried it

By Suntan on 11/21/2008 12:50:26 PM , Rating: 2

Ehh. The older I get, and the more I have a chance to travel about the face of this globe, the more it becomes obvious that my original postulate (which I formed early in highschool) seems to be correct. Namely: on average, old people are just a dumb and undeserving of recognition as young people. They just think they are more deserving than young people for one reason or another.. ..Which is just how young people think about their situation with regards to old people.

-Suntan

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RE: I tried it

By Quiescent on 11/21/2008 4:43:40 AM , Rating: 2

I piss people off that I text to, because I text about just the same as this sentence is formed. I don't use apostrophes unless I have time, and I don't use commas unless I really need it to break a sentence up or if it is absolutely necessary for something else. Otherwise, I use all the punctuation and spell everything out except a few "lol" or "rofl" if I ever use them.

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Advertise!

By chmilz on 11/20/2008 1:02:41 PM , Rating: 5

As the kings of internet advertising, I find it funny that I never once heard of this program.

RE: Advertise!

By LatinMessiah on 11/20/2008 1:51:19 PM , Rating: 2

I thought Yahoo was the king if internet advertising.

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RE: Advertise!

By amanojaku on 11/20/2008 1:51:26 PM , Rating: 5

The first rule of Lively is you don't talk about Lively!

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RE: Advertise!

By TSS on 11/20/2008 2:44:31 PM , Rating: 2

now this is not entirely true. when it was released i read about it on the dutch tech site i follow, as well as on the regular news.

however, the market it was aiming for is second life's market, and second life isn't all that popular. it's hard maintaining a second life nexto the first one :P

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RE: Advertise!

By Quiescent on 11/21/2008 4:39:51 AM , Rating: 2

I played that game (Second Life) for a whole week... I was bored out of my mind and it seemed like an advanced version or Furcadia to me. Which I did play way back in 2004, because runescape was getting boring, and tibia was always full, but still boring to play too. I really did not know of good games to play back then, lol... Furcadia... lol...

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heard of it

By Totally on 11/20/2008 2:19:38 PM , Rating: 2

-downloaded it
-toyed it for 5 min
-realized it was just a chat room w/ graphics
-uninstalled it.

RE: heard of it

By JoKeRr on 11/21/2008 10:06:17 PM , Rating: 2

wonder why companies like nortel are still investing in technology like this:
http://www.projectchainsaw.com/blog/

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Google what?

By japlha on 11/20/2008 2:04:59 PM , Rating: 2

Never heard of it.
Which is a good thing. I hate being spammed by every new application that comes along. I'm sure google could have aggressively advertised it. They were probably hoping on word-of-mouth to spread it.