Hey, wait a Second...!

It looks like mega-company and perpetual thorn in Microsoft's side Google is at it again!  The world's most popular search-engine provider and super-fun technology company is itching to get their advertising dollars in just about every crevice of the internet, whether that be web-pages, social-networking, streaming videos, or even the growing market of 3D chatting.  And with a little help from Arizona State University, it looks like Google aims to do just that and up the stakes in the increasingly popular 3D chat arenas formally known as the world-wide-web.  Available only for Windows XP and Vista (sorry Mac + Linux fans), Google Lively is the company's latest online megaton bomb that hopes to make the competition history.

While some of you might start the fanboy spittle and claim Google aped Sony's Home concept (and to a lesser extent, Nintendo's Mii creations), let's get the facts straight.  If anyone should feel slightly ripped by Google's Lively, it should be the popular 3D avatar/personality chat service IMVU.  Think I'm exaggerating?  Go ahead and click right here and see for yourselves...3D chat, custom fashions, all right down to the embarrassingly funny metrosexual avatars.

But let's here from the man with the plan, Niniane Wang, Engineering Manager on the genesis of Google Lively:

A while ago, I looked around the social web and wished that it could be less static. Sure, you can leave a comment on a blog or write a text blurb on your social networking profile. But what if you want to express yourself in a more fun way, with 3D graphics and real-time avatar interactions? I started asking this question as a 20% project, and I'm excited to announce today's release of Lively by Google - a 3D virtual experience that is the newest addition to Google Labs. (source)

Honestly, its too bad that nobody told poor Wang about Second Life, IMVU, or any countless number of deformed-avatar, 3D chatting systems.  Of course there's no word yet if Lively will actually charge for their services, but given Google's propensity for just giving everything away for free, don't count on it.  Also in their favor is a vast network of Google-owned subsidies that are incredibly popular for the Millennium-types, such as YouTube videos and Picasso pictures.  Plus, a simple plug-in will allow webpages to display 3D chatrooms instantly, so even those without the software don't have to miss out on all the fun.

Down below is the official Google Lively YouTube video (of course), showcasing some of the system's finer elements, including custom characters, 3D rooms, and all the bling-bling you can possibly handle.  Since this is a free application and the parent company has more money than my ten best friends combined (this could change, if you catch my drift) I'll be a bit more honest than usual in expressing my absolute detestation with the art style.  No, no, no...that's all I can think when I see these anorexic tweens and cartoon deformities...they all look depressed if you ask me, but at least looking at them interacting I can now safely say that I've seen Hell's Kitchen, and it looks something like this.  NO THANKS.

But in reality, Google is hardly a company that offers much in the way of innovation - outside of web advertising - and this seems to be becoming increasingly apparent.  Although I swear by GMail and consider it the company's second-best product ever, I just can't seem to get too excited over afterthought initiatives like Android, Picasso, and now the curiously infuriating looking Lively (beta, naturally).  With all their planned trips into outer space and free city-wide WiFi planning, one would hope that Larry Page and Sergey Brin should refine and button up the current projects and help them become a bit more stable before they buy up yet another YouTube or introduce a new virtual world.  Would it hurt to put a little effort into GTalk, guys?

But who knows, I could be wrong.  Happens all the time, and you can bet that Google is hoping I am.  Join the next big beta direct at the official Google Lively website by clicking right HERE!

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