Google Lively

Lively was a 3D virtual world that Google introduced on July 8, 2008. You made a cartoon avatar and stood in a room of up to 20 people while text bubbles floated over your heads. Unlike Second Life, you could not buy or sell anything, and you could not make anything either. Hairstyles, clothes and furniture came from a fixed catalog. It began as one engineer's 20 percent project, the day a week Google staff spend on side ideas. Google gave it 100 percent of nothing. It was shut down on December 31, 2008, under six months after launch. The avatars were not consulted.