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Google Kills Its Second Life-like Lively [Virtual Death]
Kotaku — ... it let users import photos from Google owned Picasa and YouTube into virtual rooms — it wasn't much more than Second Life minus the scope. And while Fahey may disagree, Second Life's not particularly interesting to begin with. The premature death of Lively may make the argument that Google should, could or would get into game development more moot, it at least gives Sony's upcoming Home project one less virtual world competitor. Lively no more [Google] ...

Google Lively is shutting down
Raph's Website — Google Kills Lively, says TechCrunch, and speculates that it is because it never drove sufficient traffic. Lively did get moderately bad reviews around the Net when it launched, but even the traffic that TechCrunch shows on its graph would be a respectable daily user number, if the product could monetize. Google’s statement is here. …we’ve also always accepted that when you take these kinds of risks not every bet is going to pay off. That’s why, despite all the virtual high fives and creative ...

Google Lively A Failure: To Shut Down Service At the End of the Year
Virtual Worlds News — ...  at the end of December, according to a  blog post .  Lively was launched in July. "Google has always been supportive of this kind of experimentation because we believe it's the best way to create groundbreaking products that make a difference to people's lives," says the post.  The post goes on: "But we've also always accepted that when you take these kinds of risks not every bet is going to pay off. That's why, despite all the virtual high fives and creative rooms everyone has enjoyed in the last four and a half months, we've decided to shut Lively down at the end of the ...

Google Shutting Down Lively
Edge Online - Interactive Entertainment Today — Google has decided to put an end to its browser-based virtual community service Lively, effective from December 31. The web search giant has explained on its official blog that Lively will be closed so that company s resources can be better focused to its core search, ads and apps businesses. Google says the decision to close Lively was difficult to make: We launched Lively because we wanted users to be able to interact with their friends and express themselves online in new ways. Google has always been supportive of this kind of experimentation because we believe it's ...

Google Lively To Shut Down In December
Worlds In Motion — ... , Google's Lively allows users to embed virtual rooms inside web pages, decorate them with graphic objects, and create avatars to interact with friends inside the rooms. "We launched Lively in Google Labs because we wanted users to be able to interact with their friends and express themselves online in new ways," reads a post on Google's official blog. ...

Google Not So "Lively" After All
WarCry Network : Latest News — Proving that a game world can die faster than Hellgate: London, Google announced today that it's closing the door on it's "virtual space" called Lively. Lively had opened its doors in July. Check out the why of this decision below. In July we launched Lively in Google Labs because we wanted users to be able to interact with their friends and express themselves online in new ways. Google has always been supportive of this kind of experimentation because we believe it's the best way to create groundbreaking products that make a difference to people's lives. But we've also always ...

Well That Was Quick
Virtual Economy Research Network — So in 2009, Google Lively will be Google Dead-As-A-Doornaily.  We never got too excited about Lively's current form around here.  I was always confused about how it aligned with Google's core business. Still it's too bad to see the big G moving out of this space and admitting defeat. More news via Google.  A brief post-mortem after the fold. <!--break--> Hindsight is always 20/20, but just as Google's entry into virtual world signified something more than it delivered, its exit from ...

Google Lively? Not So Much…
Pumping Irony — Just five months after the announcement of Lively, Google is pulling the plug on their virtual worlds software. We will shut down Lively on December 31, 2008. Embedded rooms in blogs and other web pages will continue to show an image, but users will no longer be able to enter Lively rooms and interact. The Official Google Blog has an entry on the shutdown as well. In July we launched Lively in Google Labs because we wanted users to be able to interact with their friends and express themselves online in new ways. ...

Google to put the lid on Lively
That VideoGame Blog — ... Well that was pretty short lived wasn’t it? The search giant launched its answer to the hugely successful Second Life not six months ago but today announced via its corporate blog that it will be shutting down Lively. ...

Google To Kill Its 'Lively' Virtual World Service
G4 TV - TheFeed — ... is shutting down its Lively service at the end of 2008. For those of you not familiar with Lively, it allowed users to create virtual rooms and avatars. The rooms could embedded into web pages and used to interact with Internet colleagues. Some pundits viewed Lively as a competitor to Linden Labs' Second Life, while others thought that Lively would become a corporate tool used for virtual meetings. According to the official Google blog: ...

Well then…
The Common Sense Gamer — …looks like I got my answer: I shouldn’t care. Google. OS….go for an OS!! D out.

Google Lively is dead ... ly
Joystiq — ... A mere four and a half months after the project's birth, Google is pulling the plug on its Second Life clone, Lively. The internet giant announced that it will shut the program down at the end of December, leaving all those in need of a ...

Not Really All That Lively
Broken Toys — ... As seen on Raph Koster’s site, Google Lively is shutting its doors next month. It has been a tough decision, but we want to ensure that we prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business.        ...

Lively … not
VTOR - Virtual TO Reality — ... Talk about virtual life being snubbed out quickly! It’s like you create an avatar, walk around, get to know a few places and then BAM! Gunshot to the head from some dark alley. Come on, Google, give Lively a little more chance : Google has always been supportive of this kind of experimentation because we believe it’s the best way to create groundbreaking products that make a difference to people’s lives. But we’ve also always accepted that when you take these kinds of risks not every bet is going to pay off. That’s why, despite all the virtual high fives and creative rooms ...

Google Not So Lively
GameDaily BIZ Features Feed — Today, Google announced on their official blog that they will be discontinuing their Lively service . The virtual world project will be shut down on December 31, 2008. Lively never exited the beta stage and is rumored to be a casualty of lukewarm numbers and a slowing economy. "In July we launched Lively in Google Labs because we wanted users to be able to interact with their friends and express themselves online in new ways," reads a post by 'The Lively Team.' "Google has always been supportive of this kind of experimentation because we believe it's the best way to ...

Activision Changes Baja Artwork, THQ Drops Lawsuit
GameDaily BIZ Features Feed — ... due to the similarity between the box art of the former's Baja Edge of Control and the latter's SCORE International Baja 1000 . However, Patent Arcade is reporting that Activision has agreed to simply change the picture on the cover. As a result, THQ is dismissing their lawsuit. ...

Google Closes Not-So-Lively Virtual World
The Escapist : Latest News — The short-lived Google Lively web world project will be closing down at the end of the year so the search giant can focus on its core projects. Lasting a brief five months following a two-year development, Google's Lively online world is the latest victim of the economic troubles coming to the pioneering internet firm. In an post on the official Google Blog , Google solemnly states, "Despite all the virtual high fives and creative rooms everyone has enjoyed in the last four and a half months, we've decided to shut Lively down at the end of the year." The move is mostly a ...

Right About Lively, PC Mag Closes, Corporate Speak
Make It Big In Games — ... Right About Lively: A couple of months ago when Google launched Lively, their Second Life competitor, I speculated that they had gone outside the reach of their core business competencies. Most people did not agree with me. Turns out I was right. Google is closing down Lively next month. ...

Google to shut down Lively virtual world
Big Download Blog — ... It wasn't exactly an MMO game; more of a graphical chat room. But it was created by one of the biggest Internet based companies in the world. Yet even the power of Google couldn't get people to try out their Lively virtual world. This week the company announced ...

Google Lively Already Ending Only 5 Months After it Opens.
Your2ndPlace — ... .  I wasn't super impressed with it at the time.  It just wasn't my thing.  It felt more like IMVU only a lot less cool.  Well The Official Google Blog has announced that it will close at the end of this year only 5 months after it opened stating that it was a risk that didn't pay off. In there words... ...

The death of Google ‘Lively’
Heroine Sheik — ... about how Lively was a flop from day one — surely, right? — which got me some heat at the time from fellow virtual world scholars and Google team makers alike. Of course, I’m not shocked to see things going this way. Here’s the word from the Lively site: ...

The Daily GameDev.net
GameDev.Net — ... a fresh install of Vista x64 after a few too many blue screens every day or so coerced me from my ever-comfortable prior install into a the nerd equivalent of a brand new desk chair. Now, maybe I'm just OCD (little bit), but does anyone else have a very meticulous set of settings/programs that absolutely must be installed within mere minutes of the first boot-up of any new OS install? I do. It took me a few hours. At least . A mere handful of months after it's initial launch, Google kills Google Lively citing that the company needs to "prioritize [their] resources and ...

Google dumps lively
Virtual Learning Worlds — ... Goolge announced this week that Lively, it’s quasi-virtual world service, is going to be shut down on December 31st. I’m not sure what to make of this, partially because I never had the chance to experience it due to being a windows-only application. I guess a lot of people were ...

Google: Lively Didn't Meet "Tough Targets"; Looking to Use Tech Elsewhere
Virtual Worlds News — ... , it did so with as little fanfare as when it launched the virtual world, just a short blog post . Not much more has come out past the ...

Sony embraces Web 2.0, alternate reality, in PlayStation Home
Games Brief — ... The problem is that building a compelling virtual world isn’t that easy (as Google found out with the now-defunct Lively).  Virtual worlds need communities, they need content and they need regular reasons to be there. ...