Lively meets its end

A few months ago, I blogged about a new project called Google Lively (http://blog.integricity.com/2008/07/23/lively-addition-to-the-google-universe/)

Just yesterday, Google made an official announcement that it was pulling the plug on the 4-and-a-half-month young project, a brainchild of Niniane Wang (she’s quite a looker, btw).

In hindsight, Google Lively was born at a time when virtual worlds were quickly growing out of style – Second Life netizens were leaving the world (haha) and brands were pulling out their ads and shutting down their stores. Though Lively managed to attract a good crowd in through its doors, it now appears that the larger forces at work have forced the hands of Google to reconsider its strategy in favour of more highly monetizable channels like (the long overdue) YouTube. Looks like even Google isn’t spared from all the belt-tightening that’s currently sweeping through the Valley.

On a more sombre note, our condolences go to the families of the SiPort shooting victims in Silicon Valley, an ugly incident that was sparked by the dismissal of one its employees. A sad day for the tech industry indeed.