I am shocked to hear that Google is shutting down Google Lively. This was an amazing and cutting edge development launched at the right time with little competition. The potential for this flash and browser based virtual world was huge as the virtual spaces showed video and could be embedded in sites, blogs, Facebook, and more. It launched just in July but apparently has crashed and burned. Google will be shutting down Google Lively by the end of 2008.
Google blames the shutdown on a focus on core search, ads, and apps. I for one am very disseminated. Can’t Google sell it to some competitor or something? Those working on Lively will be moved to other teams and users are urged to take videos and screenshots.
It appears Google is out of the virtual world business.