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So after someone on the forums linked an article about the new Google Virtual world called lively that started out with the line "Well this sucks for Second Life" I had to take a look. After I figured out my lost user name and password for Google I had it up and going.  The first room I entered was a beach scene with a good handful of people standing around not saying much of anything.  There were two guys with the same avatar joking about being long lost twins, and some other guy letting everyone know that his dick was hard.  Well that part did remind me of SL, but the rest not so much.  If felt more like a IMVU type setting.  Biggest and most cool difference between this and imvu is that the virtual rooms you throw together on Lively can be imbedded in your blog, or any webpage you would like. It wasn't all that great looking around by myself, but when Cristiano from SLU made a room and we all popped in, I had a lot of fun playing around with the animations and learning to function in lively with friends.  I even made a few quick youtube videos.  These aren't fun or exciting videos, but they do let you have a fast look and give you a feel for how Lively works.

This one was within my first 5 minutes of being there and making my own beach room.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRu_8Jg5Rik

And this one walking around Cristianos new pad chatting and just figuring it all out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae70VExZMC4

Do I think this will compete with Second Life? Well no.  You don't have the freedom, the ability to make your own content, the avatars aren't that easy to make unique, and you can't have sex or make money.  I do however think it's a fun little place for social interaction that has a lot of possibility.  I think if anyone should be scared it should be IMVU.  SL can sit back and continue to enjoy it's place on top of the virtual world mountain for now at least.