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Google’s Lively is basically a chat client. But then to some, so is Second Life. And it has some advantages: - The Google name and reach - Clean, sculpty looking objects - A small download - A peppy, bright, bubbly sort of chat space - Link to your Google profile and log-in information (G-mail etc.) - The ability to embed youTube videos and watch them with your friends - A maniacal giggle (with its downside that it’s text activated, just say the word laugh and you’re laughing as in “That’s nothing to laugh about”) And it has distinct disadvantages as well, in particular no support for the Mac (were they in SUCH a huge rush? Did the Vivaty launch onto Facebook accelerate their plans ahead of support for the Mac platform?), bugs, crashes, avatar limits, and a bit of a learning curve.

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All of a sudden, it seemed like everyone moved over to Plurk. This was about the time I took my little summer vaca from SL, and so I haven’t even given a serious look to Plurk, but my superficial examination has left me thoroughly confused. I guess it’s like Twitter on steroids, with all the pressure to microblog and keep up with other folks’ microblogs, but with the added pressure of a reputation rating called “karma”! No thanks.

I don’t Skype, for the same reasons I don’t use voice. I’m not much into machinima, so I don’t post videos to YouTube. I’ve given Lively a quick try and it crashed for me about ten times in half an hour, and besides I’m not happy about the fact that you can hit and slap (assault) other avatars without their consent. I still use Google chat occasionally to talk with Lanna when we can’t be in-world, but as I’ve noted before it’s a sorry substitution for SL. I belong to a few Ning groups, such as SL Bloggers and Fashion Finds, but to be honest I rarely use them.

Then there’s Facebook. I will admit, I have two Facebook accounts, one for RL and one for SL. (And no, my Second Self is not friends with RL me, so don’t bother checking!) I enjoyed using Facebook as Kit at first, but what I’ve since realized is that what I really enjoyed was using the Scrabulous application on Facebook to play Scrabble with friends, and that’s it. Which, besides being a time-waster and a huuuuuge copyright infringement, really doesn’t have anything to do with Facebook as a platform in and of itself. And the platform just started to annoy me, with all the invitations to install new applications, half of which I don’t understand and don’t really care to. (Why do I care to be a zombie? Or buy and sell my friends?)