Lively from Google is yet another 3D virtual world, kind of like Second Life but as yet unpopulated by furries or Goreans — completely virgin virtual land for griefers from like the clever goons at Something Awful to terrorize! But rather than an expansive, open-ended universe, Lively is a collection of individual "rooms" which you can then embed on third-party Web sites. Though it's not a browser-based application but a Windows-only download — so you'll have to wait just a bit before I can confirm whether or not you can "cyber," gamble or run ponzi schemes. You can, at least, feel up other users:

In our user research, we’ve been amazed at how much more poignant it is to receive an animated hug than seeing the text “[[hug]]”.

In the promotional video, the characters looke a bit like the anime-styled Yahoo Avatars. I can only hope Google's thought to include leather-daddy apparel, having released the product during Pride month.

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