Lively: Google Enters The Virtual Worlds Space

After at least a year of rumors, Google has finally unveiled the first iteration of its virtual world, Lively. While not as much of an "open world" or as creatively ambitious as Second Life, to which it will inevitably be compared, it does address many of the failings of pure open virtual worlds — their disconnect from other online experiences, their lack of critical mass, and their poor usability. It also heralds the arrival of a new generation of virtual worlds that target the Social Computing crowd. While it's early days for Google's offering, consumer product strategy professionals should watch for the point at which these new virtual worlds start to gather critical mass — and then explore the opportunities they present for their devices and services.