Google kills Lively

[Tito]

Well, for those of you that don't know yet, after launching their very own 3D chat platform last July called "Lively", the mighty Google has finally read the proverbial writing on the wall and has decided to put an end to it's still in beta multi-user web3D project. For Lively, it all comes to an end on December 31, 2008. I myself remember when I first heard about Lively, I jump on it right away thinking it could be the best 3D chat yet, since it is a Google product, and Google cant do any wrong. Boy was I wrong! The one thing that really threw me off was the over bloated interface. The other thing, was the avatar navigation, just not what I am used to. And last but not least, Lively as a platform for developers was just way too proprietorial, meaning you could not use your own, non-Lively made avatars and you could not create from scratch your own "rooms" without using Lively's online room editor. It was their way, or the highway. And as a final note to this post, the strangest thing about the Lively browser plug-in, was the fact that Lively being a Google creation, was not compatible with Chrome, Google's brand new browser. Very strange indeed how two products from the same company are incompatible with each other. You can read more on Lively's demise here: Lively no more.

[Bruce Lehmann]

fabricator said:

Google were right to pull the plug on this, although its a lot of money to spend on a mistake.

Claims by the Livelyzens that Liverly was unique aren't really true. There are plenty of basic 3d chatrooms which have the same basic "avatars+room decorating+chat" formula, case in point the x3d based Vivaty. And like most x3d plugins you can embed content in webpages.

People tried to save Abobe Atmosphere, and I think that was better than Google's effort.

Another example, although not embedded, is IMVU, which has enjoyed success.

[Deighv]

Hmmm, let's see, Google had a good thing going with Lively, which was a major undertaking for the company. It was very popular, had no major flaws, and yet it is being dis-continued? Now why do I think that Lively will re-surface, perhaps with a new label and/or owner? After all, when was the last time Google dis-continued anything it has produced unless it made a buck or two on it?

[Bruce Lehmann]

As reported on Hiperia 3D and on Len's blog (http://3donthewebcheap.blogspot.com/), Lively is back as New Lively. From their FAQ:

"Why did you create newlively?

In November 2008, when we were informed about the closure of Google Lively, we were among all those users who felt disheartened. In Google Lively we made many friends and this way of networking in Lively had become a part of our life. We felt that it was imperative to do something for the benefit of all Lively users. We wanted to lead current Lively users out of disappointment and distress, and allow them to return to the space where friendships and 'homes' were once established. To this end we created Newlively. Taking into consideration that Lively users had formed strong emotional attachment to 'Lively', we were therefore willing to do our utmost best to make Newlively resemble the original Lively as closely as possible. Although we were fully aware that this project would involve a large amount of work, we felt that as long our users were happy, our efforts would become extremely valuable. "

You can read the rest at:
http://www.newlively.com/help/faq.jsp

It is going to be interesting to see what Google thinks of this and where this will all go. More power to the people that are trying to keep it going.

[fabricator]

Bruce Lehmann said:

Lively is back as New Lively. From their FAQ:

It is going to be interesting to see what Google thinks of this and where this will all go. More power to the people that are trying to keep it going.

Big question here, just what is the code based used to power this vrml based chat system ?
they claim to have put this together in response to Liverly closing down, but no programmer in the world is that fast.

I've seen bits of vrml1 in some files it uses, which makes me suspect they are using some old plugin's code base.

[tutancamon]

'Lively' = 'Live' + 'Lyinux'

This 'Lyinux' probably want to be 'Netscape',
and his 'CC6' probably want to be 'Cosmo plugin'.

On my opinion, this chinesse production is an enteresting application.

[tutancamon]

HenHao:

http://www.henhao.com/forum/

:)

[tutancamon]

http://vrml-x3d.ning.com/profile/Weiyi

At 7:38am on January 9, 2009, tutancamon said…
:)
Comrad Weiyi,
Come and tell us about Your chinese productions, 'Lyinux', 'CC6', and 'LiveLy'. Ofcuorse also about 'NewLively'.
Camon boy !
Here is comrad Tutancamon from ex 'Socialist Republic of Romania' ! :))

Maybe comrad 'Weiyi', will join with us at this enteresting discussion of mister 'Santos Carrion Jr.' aka 'Tito' .

.