Here today, gone tomorrow...Google just told the world that they are abandoning their new 3D chat baby - Lively
Given the slowdown in search advertising, it's not a surprise they would try to cut down on non-core businesses.
For those who don't know, Lively was similar to 3D chat heavyweight IMVU - without some of the "hotter" adult themed elements. It did seem a bit confused image at launch, however with enough time and effort I think Google could have developed into a big global community - it did have some promising unique features like being fully browser based and able to embed into any web page.
How about the alternatives? In fact, the 2 large 3D chat players IMVU and Meez took a couple years to get started and are showing some spectacular growth in recent times. Both are great offerings and unique in their own way. (In case you're a new reader, we at Frenzoo don't do 3D chat - our thing is avatar fashion and we just started our public beta a couple months ago)
But at the end of the day it did seem quite strange to have a search engine company trying to branch into online games and virtual worlds...
...bai bai lively 0_0
It really is too bad Lively is leaving us for now but I wouldn't be surprised if Google will be back. The number of users of online gaming/virtual worlds continues to rise. When you look at the user engagement opportunities of games and virtual worlds, advertisers will surely want to interact with potential users through this medium.
Google will be back for a piece of that pie
Posted by: AircoMan | November 23, 2008 at 12:28 PM