While I, like many others, was a bit disappointed when Google launched Lively this summer, now that Goog is pulling the plug I think I’m even more disappointed. Feeling a bit like my first Lively avatar looks above.
Six months is hardly enough time to determine the true potential, and it’s rather sad to think that economic conditions might keep an organization like Google from giving new ideas adequate time to grow.
While the limit on developers and isolationism of rooms was off-putting to those who like to build, and brand opportunities had not materialized, and Google has had other “flops,” I agree with Christian Renaud that the closure is unfortunate.
I had come to see it as sort of a “gateway” virtual world - something with the Google name that ran in a browser might be more palatable to many users who were not quite ready for a fully immersive 3D experience. But, once they became a bit more accustomed to communicating in 3D, they might start to crave the higher benefits of a world with presence.
That is why I was actively pitching ideas for its use on DellLounge and even recently talking to some in Dell’s eSupport team about leveraging it for customer service. Not as a replacement to existing methods for assisting customers, but as a less-stodgy option for a demographic that hates to pick up the phone yet still wants to connect with a real person.
Alas, it takes time to convince large organizations to try new things - more time than Lively was given. Sure there are other options like IMVU, who many noted was doing what Lively was trying to do way before them, and Vivaty which works in Facebook and AIM. But, neither can easily be dropped into place on your corporate web site, and quite frankly, don’t have the trusted name that Google has with mainstream Internet users.
So, an idea that maybe wasn’t fully researched and “overlapped the turf of too many existing competitors without delivering on a compelling experience of its own“, won’t derail the entire virtual world industry.
But it still leaves a bit of taint and another hurdle to be faced by those of us who call ourselves metaverse evangelists.
[UPDATE: I was contacted by Keith McCurdy, CEO, and Mark Hull, VP Product Management at Vivaty, to let me know that I was mistaken about the ability to drop one of their rooms onto a web page. Here’s the note from Keith:
Hi Laura
I am the CEO of Vivaty, and I wanted to reach out and contact you to clarify something in your recent blog post on Lively closing.
You said “Sure there are other options……and Vivaty which works in Facebook and AIM. But, neither can easily be dropped into place on your corporate web site”
Vivaty can be put on any web page, and works at AIM, Facebook, Vivaty.com , and any embedded web page. We recently, about a month or two ago, added an embedding option that enables any Vivaty scene to be embedded on any web page that supports iframes. Let me know if you want to learn more about that feature, how Dell could use Vivaty, or anything going on at Vivaty.
Best
/keith
Keith McCurdy
CEO Vivaty
2 Responses
November 26th, 2008 at 11:52 am
The Livelyzens (Lively users) are coming together to appeal to Google to keep Lively alive.
Lively is a great platform for interaction as well as creativity. It is easy to use, browser based, embeddable on webpages to bring a 3D experience right on your website. While Lively has been in beta and has limited capability in terms of the objects and avatars available, the Livelyzens have been able to come up with very creative ways to create art from what is available. All this in a “clean” 3D world thanks to Google’s vigilance in getting rid of rooms with inappropriate content. More than anything, Lively has become a place to make friends for life – from all over the world with wonderful people.
Please visit our website http://livelyzens.com and participate in the Lively Machinima contest we are conducting to show the creative potential of Google Lively. Please also sign our online petition http://livelyzens.com/petition.aspx
We kindly request netizens to support us in reviving a wonderful 3D world that is a kid friendly and a creative space for art and interaction amongst adults.
November 27th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Exactly our message to google Laura - very well written. I am adding a link to your article on our website http://livelyzens.com. Please support our appeal to Google to give Lively a chance and sign our petition. Thanks for articulating so well.