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Google Shuts Down Lively; What’s Next For Virtual Worlds?

More on Google’s new SearchWiki soon… I want to test it out for awhile and see how it works rather than repeat what others are saying about. Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land has what I would call the authoritative article about it that I’ve ready today.

I other Google news, they have shut down their virtual worlds site, Lively. Yes, the Second Life-like platform started strong and then flatlined to only a few thousand daily unique hits after an initial surge of 150,000 per day.

Why the lack of interest? Google didn’t seem to have too much invested in it. Proof of this was the fact that it didn’t even work in the Chrome browser.

It’s easy to rip on virtual worlds by those who don’t use them, but Second Life maintains a loyal fan base with a modest economy. Overseas, online goods are bought and traded far more often and generate a lot of money. That said, it does appear that Americans aren’t quite as interested in virtual worlds unless it’s World of Warcraft.

Perhaps the best way for something like a search engine to make virtual worlds work is to roll it out slowly in conjunction with other products. Yahoo fantasy sports uses avatars, and I could see getting semi-interested in something virtual if it were to spring off of that.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 6:23 pmand is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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    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 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.

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