Hey Google, Get A Real (Second) Life
It took the Test Center over an hour for graphics to load to a point they could work with a mouse. And we have a fast and dedicated network in the lab, so there was no excuse for Google to build something so slow.
Like Second Life, users can enter the fantasy life of computer-generated rooms, avatars and 3-D Worlds by entering Lively. We chose a Porky Pig look-a-like character and jumped into some of the popular rooms. Right now, everything is free. The shopping button might lead to charging for more functionality.
Lively is more like DOA (as in dead on arrival.)
The site brought our system down to a crawl every time we switched rooms. The rooms needed considerable time loading whenever we jumped from place to place. Sound effects kept working well after we shut down IE. And that's was just the beginning.
One neat feature is that Lively can be controlled from any Web page. Anyone can stick a Lively session on any site. But that's about the only good trait we found. The rest was just a waste of time.
Google -- go back to the drawing board on this Web application because it isn't going to attract the "real" corporate World.
(We're not alone in this sentiment, either.)