Looks like Google wants a piece of Second Life action – the company has just launched its own virtual world called Lively.

Lively is a browser-based, virtual world add-on that builds on GTalk and allows you to create and customize avatars and worlds, and interact with others. Worlds can also be embedded into web pages, although these are currently only viewable via Windows based Internet Explorer or Firefox browsers equipped with the relevant add-on. You can either build your own world or modify one of the “template” or sample rooms provided by Google.

While Google is no doubt seeking to capitalize on the popularity of virtual worlds such as Second Life, Lively is not yet a true rival to Second Live. For example, there is no central world, as there is for Second Life users. Whether Google is planning to create a single world for Lively users is unknown for now.

Source: Michael Arrington, TechCrunch, July 8, 2008, “Google Launches Virtual World Called Lively”

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