Google gives its engineers 20% of their time for whatever persnal projects they want to take on. Some of the more famous products by Google came was borne out of this “20% project” like GTalk, Orkut and AdSense.
Google Engineering Manager, Niniane Wang, did the same thing with her time and created yet another Second Life clone called Lively. Lively rooms can be embedded on your favorite blog or website to get you to interact with friends and visitors.
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.
But Second Life never really took off or did it? Still, better late than never. Besides it’s just for fun.
Download copy of it here.
Re: comment about Second Life. SL. has 31,500 regions with 40,000 to 80,000 users logged on at any time. Sounds to me like that is “taking off.”