Slashgeo

From CNet News : "Google on Tuesday plans to unveil an online 3D social arena called Lively, the Internet giant's take on Second Life. But Google wants it to be part of your first life. "
"With Lively, you can set up you own online spaces--rooms, grassy meadows, desert islands, or, in the demo version I tried, simulated Silicon Valley office parks. You can change the clothing or form of your avatar (that's your online incarnation, for those of you who missed the Second Life hype). And of course you can chat, do backflips, shake hands, and give high-fives. "

Here's recent geoblogs coverage of geospatial games to complete the ~20 previous geogames stories mentioned here. First there's the GEB top 10 games for Google Earth. Mapperz links to Nokia Mapter's game. VerySpatial links to a short entry on location-based gaming. Less directly related to geospatial, there's also Google's virtual world, Lively, which stated goal is to be used as an online game platform.

In a not so rare move these days, cnet reports that Google is shutting down it's Second Lab killer app. Kind of makes you wonder when Sketchup, Google Desktop, Google Earth or any of the other products they offer for free that is not part of their "core search" will go away. Here is a quote taken from a Google representative from the cnet summary : "Despite all the virtual high fives and creative rooms everyone has enjoyed in the last four and a half months, we've decided to shut Lively down at the end of the year," Google said on its official blog Wednesday evening. "It has been a tough decision, but we want to ensure that we prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business." Update: 11/20 17:21 GMT by S : Slashdot now discusses the same news.