A Second Life for Google
Last week, a beta version of Lively was launched - Googles take on Second Life. Lively is an avatar based virtual world along the lines of Second Life with the ability for users to create their own online rooms (to host their YouTube, blog, social network profile etc.). It's very early days and although the functionality, depth and visual appeal is basic, Google certainly has the budgets to make a success of it - should it wish to! As Google puts it: "It's integrated with the Internet. It's not an alternate destination. Our intention is to add to your existing life."
At first glance, the aim is to provide an alternative, fun environment to the more structured personalised homepages such as Netvibes or iGoogle (these sites let individuals assemble their favorite widgets, websites, blogs, email accounts, social networks, search engines, instant messengers, photos, videos, podcasts, and everything else they enjoy on the web - all in one place and not tied to a single PC or Mac). The concept is that we shouldn't need to go to information - it should be experienced, collated and managed through an environment that suits us. For example, as YouTube allow users to (and make it easy to) embed their chosen video within any external website or application as per the clip below.
However, should Lively take off or should Google sense that it 'could' take off, it will almost certainly become an additional inventory or advertising space for advertising and marketing. As with Second Life, having an additional presence on these sites will enhance brand awareness and with Lively, it's very likely to affect search engine rankings. For anyone with time on their hands or for any online marketeer, it could be worth a look (however don't expect a polished product though).
Posted by Chris Haresign
