Ever since the beginning of this year, some order of attention has been brought up by a few articles like this one, speculating on the possibility of a Google powered virtual world designed to possibly compete with Linden Labs' SecondLife.

As of July 8th 2008, Google Lively finally lounched, dissipating some but not all of the assumed fears and hopes from the new generation of VRML users.

Google Lively is clearly in its beta development, with roughly 80% more work to be done before the new social network is complete.

My impression, based on experience from VR social networks as old as Alphaworld, is moderately positive, considering how much more work is still planned ahead.

Creating an avatar in Lively, at this time, offers a very restricted level of morphological customization. there is a range of avatars to choose from, for which it's possible to select different preset hair styles, clothes, shoes and gadgets. The animation sets make the avatar "lively" enough at least to be funny, althought some emotional responses can be overkill, such as laughter, simulated with an uncontrollable and hysterical burst. Other than that, most animations seem to be appropriate for most situations and bestow plenty of life into the avatar. There is talk about animations enabling avatars to fight, and on that note i have no comment as i have not witnessed it myself, but i can only assume that as development progresses, we will see hopefully a tighter level of control over how avatars emote and interact with each other.

Opposite to most 3D social networks that exist in vast, sometimes immense worlds divided into interconnecting "lots" where literally millions of avatar can co-exist at the same time in different parts of the virtual world, Google Lively is structured in completely independent smaller rooms where an unspecified number of avatars can meet and interact. I sincerely hope that, should the developers choose this approach as definitive, they will consider how much resources are needed to render a room full of hundreds of avatars at the same time in such a tight space, and resort to some kind of limit to the number of visitors for certain rooms, perhaps based on the complexity of the room itself.

The creation of the room is a very straightforward process: choice is given on a number of preset room "shells", ranging from very basic to very extravagant. All rooms are very well designed and have some sort of cartoon feel to them, although it is possible to design a room with a more mature and serious setting with a bit of work, using the available objects.

I have no idea if there is a maximum number of rooms that can be created by a single user, i can assume there is at some point, but for rooms so small, i doubt it would be necessary, since the creation of a room would not make sense without it being inserted into a website framework able to publish it for everyone to see. So far the only public list of Lively rooms is on the Lively website itself. The list is already huge, but there are also plenty of empty rooms. this is to be expected as there is always a percentage of time-wasters among any user-base.

Google developers have announced that they will, sometime down the line, open the development of in-world content to all users. This is a must for any virtual world to survive, and will constitute a very important milestone for Google Lively to be competitive. Google SketchUp seems to be a favorite among users who have already experienced Google Lively, at least within the forums, though there is hope that advanced 3D artists will be able to create content with their favorite software of choice, like Maya or 3DS Max by means of potential plug-ins or conversion tools. Time will tell.

As of now, there is a limited but promising selection of objects available on an online catalog which will automatically transfer the objects selected into a personal inventory available when customizing content from inside the rooms. All objects are very well designed and attractive. Animated content is fairly accurate and has a nice motion, althought i have not been able to see any Avatar/Object animated interaction, such as an avatar sitting on an Internet kiosk and start typing on the keyboard or moving the mouse. Avatar/object animated interaction is essential to bring a virtual environment to life and i hope the developers will take that into serious consideration, in light of the fact that this might very well be the next best thing after ActiveWorld and SecondLife.

Currently it is possible to display video content and photos on objects that allow this feature, such as picture frames and flat panel TV props. Videos are restricted to YouTube RSS code, which is not practical for me, as my personal preference is towards Google Video. Images can be hosted anywhere, but for image galleries the only option is Picasa. I have no problem with this option as i consider Picasa the best online application for creating image galleries on the Internet.

The objects are listed as FREE, which might imply a potential for selling user-created content. This is not a bad idea, as users will be more motivated to create better content for sale and improve the look and feel of Google Lively.

The revolutionary method of clicking and dragging the avatar across the room in place of using the arrow keys threw me off for the first few minutes of my experience, and the way of interacting with objects by opening small option panels, as opposed to pop-up option menus such as the ones used in The Sims 2, took longer for me to get used to. In the hour that followed, i felt more at ease with the modality of interaction, but then again i had to stop and make some considerations:

my experience was certainly aided by the use of a trackball, which is considerably more practical than a conventional mouse, in that it contemplates movement that does not stop at the edge of a desk, but it continues indefinitely, allowing for a continuous movement in all directions of a 3D scene without interruptions. Most people do not use trackballs unless their job requires it. I have trackballs installed in all computers at home, but whenever a guest needs to use a computer i feel i have to be ready to provide a regular mouse. The question is... how far is Google willing to go to make sure that users maximize the enjoyment of their 3D experience?

Some may argue that Google is simply following the already tested standard set by the popular Google Earth, and to a certain extent i can understand that, but google Earth is not a 3D social network. Interaction is limited to locations defined by exact geographical addresses that are automatically zoomed into. No manual navigation is needed, except for the sheer and unnecessary pleasure of admiring terrain features and 3D buildings, for which a regular mouse is plenty effective.

A wish list at this time is hard to put together, with 80% of work still to be done, this new Google powered 3D social network is likely to grow into something with the potential to beat Linden Lab's SecondLife at its own game.

One major feature that i would like to see is something essential to all 3D avatar-based social networks, which is the concept of day/night stages, where a virtual sky and appropriate lighting provides for clues on the local time at the room's location. For example, if a user located in Europe creates a room on Lively, he/she could be given the chance to set a local timezone for the room, aligned with their real geographical location. This system would provide better sense of connectivity and timing between users across the planet.

Another essential feature is a way to restrict mature content. The network seems to me pretty wide open for all to join, and this inevitably constitutes risks of exposing minors to unsuitable content. There are already rooms that promise adult themes, and i'm sure the last thing Google wants is having minors accessing "bad neighborhoods" on Lively. Fortunately the concept of creating individual rooms is promising as far as setting some level of security from the user-side. Perhaps a public rating system could be set into place where users will rate the room contents and based on the numbers and types of ratings the room could be categorized accordingly. Of course i'm thinking out loud here as i'm sure the developers will think of something based on more suitable professional experience. Providing the possibility of having a room unlisted would also be great for those who intend to create adult content and make it available through a sign-up screening process, as the rooms addresses seems to be identifieable only through random combinations of numbers and are not possible to just "Google" up.

Google Lively shows plenty of promise, in that it's really bringing back the concept of VRML to where it started. Picture quality, interaction, resource optimization and functionality are essential ingredients to finally bridge the gap between 2D websites and 3D interactive locations where people can meet and discuss published content as it happens. I wouldn't be surpprised if sooner or later, should Google decide to open source the technology and enable webmasters to host it on their servers, websites across the Internet will begin to turn into 3D rooms where business, news, entertainment and personal content can be experienced in a deeper way, a more natural and straight forward way. Not to mention that if we integrate everything into a 3D world which only functions within the boundaries of a visual experience, our browsing experience would be somewhat safer, away from the paranoia of pop-ups and spyware.

But again... i am thinking out loud.

Fabio Basile - Digital Graphic Art

http://www.FabioBasile.com