Google launches Second Life rival

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Google has launched a three-dimensional virtual experience website to match popular virtual world Second Life.

The service, called "Lively," uses real-time virtual world characters known as avatars and three-dimensional graphics to congregate in virtual rooms.

Linden Lab's Second Life, launched five years ago, was the first online community with its own currency and a growing economy and avatars.

"If you enter a Lively room embedded on your favourite blog or website, you can immediately get a sense of the room creator's interests, just by looking at the furniture and environment they chose," Niniane Wang, engineering manager, who oversaw Lively's creation, said on Google's official blog.

Lively also allows for playing YouTube videos in virtual TVs and showing photos in virtual picture frames inside the rooms, Wang said.

- Reuters