July 8th, 2008
Among the many early reports of the launch of Google’s new social network, I found Mashable’s one of the most detailed. As the post notes:
“…Google has just launched Lively, a new social network built around the concept of each user creating an avatar and a personal virtual room that can be embedded anywhere on the Web. In essence, Google is looking to create a massive distributed virtual world, where every Google account can have its own avatar that can be used wherever a Lively virtual room is present – for example, on a blog, a social networking profile, or a Web page.
…Similar to avatars, Lively offers several templates for starting your room that can then be customized – for example, a 5 room apartment, or a desert island (rooms can be outdoors). From there, you can do things like add your own background music, insert furniture, pull in photos from Picasa (and other services) and embed YouTube videos on a virtual plasma screen TV. In the example below, a virtual Googleplex shows a YouTube video of Sergey Brin and Larry Page:
Once a room has been created, embed code allows you to copy it to any Web page. Each room also has its own URL on Lively, if you prefer to just send your friends to your room directly.
…The Social Graph
For now, Lively has its own buddy list that you build one-by-one by inviting your friends. However, Engineering Manager Niniane Wang hints that the product will eventually move to support the porting of your friends from other social networks – per initiatives like Facebook Connect, MySpace Data Availability, and Google’s own Friend Connect product. There are already Facebook and OpenSocial applications for Lively that allow you to see which of your friends are signed in.
Monetization Potential
While for now Lively is a free product, there are already hints at the monetization potential Google is looking at with this product. For example, when browsing room templates you can use, it lists the price as “free,†implying that eventually there will be premium versions to choose from. Additionally, with the inclusion of wardrobe options, it’s not hard to connect the dots and see massive opportunities for product placement, such as decorating your character with Nike shoes or a Starter jacket (or whatever the kids are wearing these days).
Is This Google’s New Social Networking Strategy?
Wang tells me that Lively came about during Google’s famous “20 percent time,†where engineers devote 1/5th of their time to their own ideas and projects. But, it’s safe to say that this project may turn into much more. Tying an avatar to your Google account that can be used anywhere there is a Lively room is a unique idea that takes advantage of Google’s huge userbase.
Moreover, the ability to create and decorate a room to include on your social networking profiles may be a hit with younger users, if the success of services like Slide, RockYou, and SecondLife is any indicator. Lively is also a bit of a destination site – offering users the ability to browse rooms randomly to meet new people. It’s an ambitious new project from Google, and one that will be worth watching in the months ahead.”
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 6:17 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
