Google kills Lively - what can we learn?

Earlier this year Google started an new initiative called Lively - 3D Avatars and Rooms which looked very much as though they were going to try and take on SecondLife. I played around with it for a while, but it didn't do much for me, but then neither does SecondLife. I did however think it would prove quite popular since it got around a lot of the problems of SecondLife, even though it was quickly infested with porn sites. However, Google has decided to drop it, and they're being very vague as to why. On the one hand they're saying that people created really good stuff:

We got a kick out of the YouTube videos in a variety of languages telling stories about your avatars. And we've been awed by the elaborate rooms that you've constructed, using mosaic tiles and photo gadgets in novel ways.

On the other hand they then go on to say 'We're closing it.' The blog posting doesn't give much more information; But we've also always accepted that when you take these kinds of risks not every bet is going to pay off.  That's not really saying anything - not popular enough? Too much porn? Not enough revenue resulting from it? It's a really interesting decision, particularly so since they've not given it much time to run.

This shouldn't come as a surprise - lots of Google products fail to make the grade, as I have blogged before, and this is just another example. What does it mean for end users? Nothing we didn't really know before of course, but it's worth repeating over and over - don't trust any company, not even Google. They get a lot right - I'm happy to laud their achievements, but it's not going to get every decision right. In fact they're going to get a lot of them wrong because they spend a lot of time exploring and trying out new things. This is great, except for those people who spend a lot of their own time using resources that then get cut. My advice - sit back, play with something, but don't rely on it being around until it's been around for a good while.

I hope this doesn't stop other companies trying to get into the Avatar space. My own opinion is that SecondLife is too unweildy for most people, and having to download stuff is a bar to uptake (soooooo Web 1.0 dahling!). What I'd like to see is the possibility of going to a site, creating a virtual room, having access to PowerPoint, white board and so on, the ability to invite participants and for them to be able to create their own avatars on site, hold the meeting and then store it and the avatars in order to bring them out again at some other time. Yes, I know there are lots of good programs that almost do that, but I've yet to see one that does exactly that. I'm keeping my eyes open.