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R.I.P. Google’s Lively

posted on November 19, 2008


It took two years to develop Lively–the 3D world from Google.

It took less than 5 months for Google to announce it is shutting it down.

…despite all the virtual high fives and creative rooms everyone has enjoyed in the last four and a half months, we’ve decided to shut Lively down at the end of the year. It has been a tough decision, but we want to ensure that we prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business.

Isn’t that basically what I suggested?

…there’s a long, long way to go in perfecting Google’s search engine. Right? So, why are Google engineers focusing their free time on projects that don’t serve that goal? Are they bored with search? Is this a sentiment that is pervasive among Google’s top talent?

I’m sorry for Niniane Wang–she developed Lively–but glad that Google put it out of its misery.


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  • http://www.seoresults.co.za/pages/seo-tips/ SEO Tips South Africa

    And so Lively died a timely death…..maybe too early for the world of the web, maybe we’ll see it (or similar) resurrected in years to come.

  • http://blog.mmcsoftware.com/ Mark Anderson

    That Google post suggests that they aren’t 100% committed to Analytics or Gmail – neither of which are “search, ads or apps” in the normal sense. I know they are much more popular than Lively was, but it worries me to think I’m depending on free services that may or may not be there tomorrow. Google is either the best company in the history of the world, or the most evil corporation ever. I haven’t decided yet.

    Mark Anderson’s last blog post..Just How Electric Can A Car Get?

  • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Andy Beal

    @Mark – considering the success of both Gmail and Analytics, I wouldn’t worry about it. Google needs Gmail as part of its Google Apps offering and Analytics to support AdWords.

  • http://www.paystolivegreen.com Patrick

    As you said Andy, it’s probably good this tool died. Try not continue to focus on what they do well and forget about stupid side projects like this one.

    Patrick’s last blog post..Buy From Local Turkey Farms for Thanksgiving

  • http://www.greatpriceshere.com Nicole Price

    R.I.P.

    Nicole Price’s last blog post..The Best Recipe Sites

  • http://www.saadkamal.com Saad Kamal

    I’m sorry for Niniane but I think it was the right move…They should not concentrate on too many things at the same time. (Thats what Yahoo did..and look where they are now)…

    Saad Kamal’s last blog post..TweetTag – Tag Search for Twitter

  • http://www.jordankasteler.com/utah-seo-pro-blog/ Utah SEO Pro

    I had forgotten about it anyway.

    Utah SEO Pro’s last blog post..ExactFactor: An SEO Tool Review

  • http://financialbreakthrough101.com/themoneyblog/ Kenney @ Work From Home Blog

    Aint that the truth UtahSEOPro. I totally forgotten it existed. Oh well. Might have been neat though.

  • sheppy

    You don’t know until you try…Yes concentration on other parts of the business is good, but they do have plenty of money to put into research and development of new stuff. Maybe this didn’t work, but other stuff has done and might again in the future…

  • http://www.terryhoward.net/ Terry Howard

    Couldn’t it have grabbed Second Life by the collar on the way down and pulled it into the abyss with it?

    Terry Howard’s last blog post..Walmart FAILS Web 2.0

  • http://apple-realincentives.com iphone

    I’m sure we’ll see it back in the future, innovation is google’s strength but I guess they know it shouldn’t be at the expense of their core products.

  • http://www.christmaspoems.biz/ Galin

    It is the right solution. One should realize his mistakes, improve them or forget about, just like Google is going to do. However it is really correct to concentrate on their core search, ads and apps deals.

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