Google Finally Gets Its Hands on the Virtual World

It was predicted long ago that Google would either choose to acquire Second Life or create its own 3D virtual world. The official announcement from Google revealed the launch of the free virtual reality service "Lively.com," which poses a challenge to "Second Life." Looking at Google's own product lineup, the mirror virtual world of Google Earth and the 3D creation tool SketchUp together form a natural environment around the world. Moreover, there are at least 25 million people around the globe who are enthusiastic about using Google Earth forums for communication and sharing, contributing UGC (videos, photos, wikis, etc.) on Google Earth. Once Google enters the avatar space, users can communicate and share within this mirror world, which is inherently more exciting than interacting in a 2D community.

Google has never stopped expanding into 3D (a trend widely recognized by everyone). The virtual Berlin is the first fully 3D city outside of the United States, and tens of thousands of famous architectural landmarks have already been digitized in 3D and are scattered across various corners of the world.

Google is not satisfied with this alone; the Mirror World represents the entire virtual universe...