Google Lively is the new virtual world launched in Beta version. It’s like the Sims and a chat room rolled into one. You can choose an avatar (body), design your own room and chat in real-time with others. But, you’re not just limited to chat, you can also show feelings like anger, sadness, and joy, and interact with other Lively members with a hug, slap, choke, tickle, and even propose marriage!

So, while Google is new on the scene with Lively, virtual worlds have been around for a few years now. The most popular is Second Life . Second Life , a five-year veteran to the virtual world, has a huge following, infrastructure, economy, and exists like a parallel universe. While a basic account is free, you will have to pay a monthly membership fee to own land, build homes or company buildings.

Although Google Lively has only been available for a few days, criticism is already mounting against the search giant for a more dumbed-down version of Second Life. Here are some of the criticisms:

• Too cartoonish - Avatars in Lively look like cartoons and presently don’t allow as much customization as you might expect. When users enter into a virtual world, they want to feel as though its as real as possible. VW fans don’t want to feel like they’re playing a video game with cute little characters. They want avatars and environments to mimic the real world.

  

• High System Requirements - Many people don’t have the minimum system requirements Lively needs to function. If you don’t have a new computer in the last 2-3 years, you likely won’t be able to load the software.
• Unstable Software - Reports of system crashes is pretty regular, even a few days into Lively’s launch. So even if you meet the system requirements, prepare for the occasional locked-up system or crash, especially while its still in Beta.
• No Mac Version - Currently, Google Lively is only available for PC, which leaves Mac users a little miffed. Although Google hopes to launch a Mac version in the future, Mac users are left out for now.
• Too Simplified - Lively is a free download and everything you want or need in its virtual world is also free. While this may be attractive to some, and more accessible for the younger crowd, it leaves virtual world fans bored. Second Life allows you to earn and spend money, like real life. You can sell products for real money like a real world business. This fosters a sense of purpose. Most virtual world fans say that Google Lively is a visual chat room and nothing more. Its just not as much fun!

On the flip side, Google has integrated some interesting features into Lively to make it stand out from the crowd. It allows you to embed any Lively room into a webpage. It already has a widget for Facebook so people can include their Lively room on the Facebook profile. Google will be adding MySpace functionality soon. And, you can add Lively to blogs or even corporate websites.

Google has integrated streaming video from YouTube and photos into Lively, so anyone can play video on the virtual TVs and put their own photos on the walls.

If you want to download Google Lively and create your own virtual space, check out these FAQS on Lively first. It will give you the answers to some of the most common problems people are experiencing with the VW and make your Lively experience a lot easier. For more comments and criticism of Google Lively stop by Terranova’s Blog.

Tell us what you think of Google Lively and how it stacks up to the competition in Second Life or other virtual worlds.