Google Lively/Lively by Google/Lively by Google BETA

Type of site	Virtual world
Owner	Google
Created by	Google
Launched	July 8, 2008 (2008-07-08)
Current status	Discontinued

Google Lively (also known asLively by Google orLively by Google BETA) was a web-basedvirtual environment created and developed byGoogle. It was discontinued and permanently shut down on December 31, 2008.

Lively was only supported onInternet Explorer orMozilla Firefox, usingWindows XP orWindows Vista. It required a special download as well asFlash. The program was designed to be integrated with theWeb and provided a new way to access information. This was enabled through the embedding of Lively "rooms" into anyHTML webpage—which meant content could be provided in a two-dimensional format, and communication surrounding the topic of that content could be made in the three-dimensional room without the need to enter a separate program.^[1]

Engineering managerNiniane Wang supervised this Google project, described inThe New York Times byBrad Stone:

Up to 20 people could occupy a room and chat with one another. Text appeared as cartoon-style bubbles atop theavatars. Users could design their own virtual environments and hangYouTube videos and photos fromPicasa, Google's photo service, on the walls as if they were pieces of art... Students atArizona State University tested Lively for several months. Ms. Wang wrote in the blog post that she started Lively as a20 percent project referring to Google’s philosophy that employees should spend one day a week working on projects outside their day-to-day responsibilities. Compared toSecond Life, the virtual world run byLinden Lab ofSan Francisco, the world of Lively is considerably smaller.^[2] Also, unlike Second Life, in Lively, the users could not buy and sell products. Since there was nouser-generated content on Lively, items such as hairstyles, clothing and furniture were limited to a catalog of pre-designed selections.

Google eventually introduced this product on July 8, 2008, with this comment by Wang:

If you enter a Lively room embedded on your favorite blog or website, you can immediately get a sense of the room creator's interests, just by looking at the furniture and environment they chose. You can also express your own personality by customizing your avatar's look, showing people who you are without having to say a word. Of course, you can chat with each other, and you can also interact through animated actions.^[3]

Gadgets in Lively rooms could also run on a user's desktop throughGoogle Desktop.^[3]

• Metaverse

• Lively official site
• Art/Animation Direction/Implementation completed byX-Ray Kid Studios
• Ars Technica: "Hands On"
• Massively hands-on with Lively
• RCE Universe Lively Discussion Site
• Lively No More at About Instant Messengers

• Discontinued Google services
• Virtual world communities
• Massively multiplayer online role-playing games
• Proprietary software
• Windows-only software
• Video games developed in the United States
• Internet properties disestablished in 2008

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata