Started working in Google’s Lively yesterday so these are my initial reactions. In one word - disappointing.

In more words - Google has a long way to go, but some things they got right.

It is a 2.5D approach to interactive worlds. It is better than Active World but not even close to Second Life. I know there is the power of Google behind this so I can not dismiss it right away, but this thing needs help.

I have read were people said it was easier to navigate than Second Life, but my initial testing on 10 people showed similar problems. It is NOT intuitive. People with gaming backgrounds pick it up faster, but their reactions to the graphics is a barrier. Those with no / little gaming experience were happy with the graphics but left on their own, could not figure out how to move and interact.

Lively is a endless series of disconnected virtual chat rooms, each capable of holding up to 20 avatars at once. Rooms vary in size a little and can be listed on the website, or remain unlisted. This is not what I would expect, at least you need to be able to get 100 avatars into a room. My personal sim on Second Life has achieved 80 avatars before crashing.

I plan on spending the next few weeks in here, learning it and seeing what opportunities present themselves.

Initial Positive Feature: You can set up a room off of your website, so people do not have to figure out in world where you are.