Forum Moderators: goodroi
As if Google didn't have a strong enough hold on the planet already, today it's launching its own world -- a virtual world, to be exact. Lively, which Google likes to call a "virtual experience," allows you to create an avatar, decorate your own virtual room, invite friends to your room and do things you've always dreamed of, like blow up oil barrels on a deserted island.Unlike popular virtual worlds such as Second Life, Lively doesn't require you to download new software. All you need is a browser plug-in. The service is also more distributed than Second Life: Its rooms will live on Web pages on Facebook and other sites, so you might stumble across them when browsing the Internet. Rooms can be private spaces, with entry by invitation only, or open-topic rooms, where you can meet people interested in discussing topics you love, like Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston or Google. It also ties into other Google services. You can stream YouTube videos into your virtual living room or post your Picasa pictures on your walls.
[lively.com...]
I'll bet that someone's legal team in the State of Washington might. And won't that just set an interesting precedent?
Whatever were the twins and their team they thinking about when they went that route? Was there some kind of strange assistance program put in place recently for out of work attorneys that the rest of us don't know about?
Given recent news items on search engine companies, I have to believe that someone needs to have a serious sit down chat about business maturity with several huge internet and real world corporate "players". I think I'm begining to understand what the term "players" really means and I'm not liking it at all. I would think their shareholders might not either.
-Commerce
Hmm, "lively"... can you say "confusingly similar branding"?
If you're referring to Second Life I would strongly disagree about the similarity being even remotely confusing.
Not at all, I was responding and referring to the post thread subject.
The name Second life does not seem at all confusing in the context of this thread, nor I would guess (as I had never even heard of them until this morning) that they are involved in the business of search and general software development as a key part of their company charter.
-Commerce
Is it just me or did they disable the back button?
I never would have expected that from Google and I'm sure it won't last long.
Isn't that one of the oldest rules in their AdWords program - no disabling of the back button?
Reminds me of the online 3D worlds I used to go in to, but were far too slow and hang your computer a lot. I see the same problems exists in lively, anyone else seeing it hanging your desktop? CPU isnt busy, so dont understand why its always hanging my desktop, (it feels like they need to put background threads on a lower priority maybe?)
[edited by: Seb7 at 8:44 pm (utc) on July 9, 2008]
No thanks.
No doubt it will expand into something else, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting to find (though I don't usually bother with these type of things).
I think that I was expecting a 3d version of myspace / bebo. E.g. A bedroom/room that had a wall plastered with your friends comments (which you could write on), a life size statue/poster of you (using data you'd enter - e.g. height, male/female, etc), another wall with photos of your friends (click on to visit their room), another wall with posters of your favourite bands/films and so forth.
I also expected customisation to be easier and more varied. E.g. change wallpaper/paint colour/texture etc. I think that I also expected it to take info from a requested profile and automatically create your "room" to begin with.
I'm not sure how this could benefit advertisers - adverts appearing on the page its contained on perhaps? Or within actual rooms? Or perhaps via virtual stores?
I've tried to download Lively about six times now, but all that ever downloads is a shortcut icon which opens up lively.com in a browser window. I can't see a right sidebar with avatar or wardrobe or room icons or anything.
Have I missed something really obvious?
I'd like to give this a spin... I can see it having a lot of potential.
My brand name has been taken as an ID already. It's a registered trademark in the US. Can I consider this as a violation of my rights and ask Google to remove that room? I think I'll talk to my trademark lawyer about this.
My brand name has been taken as an ID already. It's a registered trademark in the US. Can I consider this as a violation of my rights and ask Google to remove that room? I think I'll talk to my trademark lawyer about this.
Yes it's a trademark violation and an infringement of your rights under law. Please do take it seriously, and *sue the pants offa them* for encouraging this kind of claptrap.
It's bad enough that people are living pseudo-lives online because of internet addiction, otherwise empty lives, and as an escape mechanism for neurotic disorders; but to open a door to legal abuse and infringement is going WAY over the line.
[edited by: Marcia at 7:17 am (utc) on July 12, 2008]
