updated significantly, after reaching the company’s VP of marketing, and investor
Silicon Valley company Vivaty is the latest to try to push forward the idea of a virtual world, so that it exists anywhere on the Web.
It wants to be the first to offer sophisticated features — including 3D life such as you’d find in Second Life, but also chat, and the ability to post video and link with rooms elsewhere on the Web — all within a browser. And also accessible on any Web page.
It’s called Vivaty, it’s in private testing, and last fall it raised $9.4 million from big-name venture firms Kleiner Perkins and Mohr Davidow Ventures.
The company has dubbed the experience it offers “the Immersive Web.”
The Menlo Park, Calif. company lets you chat with friends in a 3D-style room within a web page (see image below) — The New York Times also mentioned the site here, but didn’t go into full detail on how it works, and I’m still waiting on an invite so I can try it out myself.
It’s also a widget that you embed on other web pages. You choose the virtual furnishings for the room, and when you’re on a page with the Vivaty widget, you’ll have those furnishings when you chat with people coming into your room. The wall hangings in your virtual room (see image) are things you can post yourself or others post for you (you can throw up an image or video, for example, using a URL). To chat in a room, you’ll need to create an avatar.
Presumably it also lets you chat with your friends across IM protocols such as AIM and Yahoo Messenger, like what you can already do on large online IM services like Meebo and eBuddy.
Note that Vivaty used to be called MediaMachines, and it has already built a tool called Flux Player that lets you view the web in 3D.
There’s certainly a place for embeddable virtual worlds with chat — Meebo launched a chat room widget last year, which in matter of months has grown to 20-some million monthly active users.
So, for Vivaty’s potential demographic, I’m imagining first teenagers who like virtual worlds. They’ve already seemed to like the Gaia Online application on Bebo, which is essentially also an embedded 3D chat room service.
Update: Heidi Perry, the company’s VP of Marketing, and Jim Smith, of Mohr Davidow just got in touch, and we’ve updated the story accordingly. Perry adds: “The user chooses the social context, so it doesn’t have to be live chat… It could just as easily be posting notes on a virtual corkboard asynchronously. We are taking a distributed approach to personal virtual spaces and our platform can cater to brands, communities, or consumers.” The CEO has posted at blog.vivaty.com.
7 Comments
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Albert said:
Now this is actually a pretty great start-up with a neat future. I could definitely see this going into the corporate world for conferences and meetings as well. That would be a powerful demographic to target.
I think the demographic of teenagers is also going to be a good niche. Most teens these days like to customize their own private virtual worlds. Seems nifty. I’ll stay tuned!
-Albert
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Eric Eldon said:
@Albert, how do you see the corporate world making use of Vivaty for conferences and meetings?
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Dave said:
In the New York Times article Mr. McCurdy is quoted as saying “he did not expect these live services to travel far across the generational divide.” I think this is amazing and speaks very low of either his product, or the his impression of older Internet users. We are so very beyond the days of the children always knowing more than the parents. I am 48 and a very active resident in SL. Have been for some time. We extremely active in online chat for many many years. I am not alone. There are hundred’s of thousands people over 40 using these kind applications everyday. I see this app. becoming a very normal part of any web site as it matures. I also expect the elderly to embrace it as a way to keep socially active beyond the senior center. I’ve met many over 60 people in SL, they are a vital and active as the 28 year old residents and you’d never know they were older if that didn’t tell you.
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Albert said:
@Eric Eldon,
This would be a pretty nifty feature if you could create an architectural virtual world of a corporate office, or allow for some customized design of the virtual space. As a result, instead of having to actually use the office space, people within the company could all utilize this feature to just be at their desks from wherever they are located at the time to log in and meet.
As a result, it could create an artificial conference room and workers could log in from places as far as China. Some people might also “feel at home” if the virtual room mimics the actual office where they typically meet. This could be a powerful communication tool to all corporate rolls. I know with my job right now, we all dial in and have a meeting through a chat room. However, using visual representations is extremely difficult. By having a virtual room with a presentation going on while people are chatting, it would be interactive and would allow for easier communication.
Regards,
-Albert -
Keith said:
Thanks for your post. I just wanted to clear up one the quotes in the article and add a little more context. Our company’s vision for the immersive web is all about enabling everyone of all ages and interests to experience the web in a more engaging way. In my discussions the NY Times I did note that the Vivaty experience would feel completely natural to the 15-35 year old generation who are, in general, a little more familiar with avatars, 3D environments, and video game like experiences. This is not to exclude any other age groups younger or older, or to say that they also would not enjoy the experience or find it natural. We want to make the experience we’re creating as universal as possible. That’s our aim.
/keith
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Jon Partridge said:
I think it’s clear that the next evolution of the Web will focus on more immersive and customizable applications and experiences. Marrying 3d virtual worlds with the Web for mass consumption and distribution is right on the mark. Congrats Vivaty. I look forward to trying the app soon. I’ve also come across and have been using a similar application on Facebook called SceneCaster (http://apps.facebook.com/scenecaster). This is a really fascinating application as it allows you to create your own virtual space,customize it from a library of 3d models, including from Google’s 3D Warehouse, publish and share it on Facebook, link your 3D space to any website or URL and also to embed your space on your blog, etc. Very cool. We’re in for fascinating times.
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Damian said:
This is a very interesting space. Appears to be a lot of startups trying to take 3D out of the realm of gaming and into the mainstream.
I came across another one earlier today on Techcrunch.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/16/exitreality-turns-social-network-profiles-into-3d-spaces/
Looks like we are seeing something interesting happening in this space..
3 Trackbacks
12:31 pm
Team Think mobile edition said:
[...] For consumers, Vivaty, a start-up based in Menlo Park, California, is creating 3-D virtual chat rooms that users can add to Web pages and social networking profiles. Vivaty chat rooms will rely on “a widget that you embed on other web pages. You choose the virtual furnishings for the room, and when you’re on a page with the Vivaty widget, you’ll — get ready for this — see images from the page featured as wall hangings in your virtual room…,” writes Eric Elden at Venturebeat. [...]
9:50 pm
Chris Pirillo and Friends - Shaiki.com said:
[...] Vivaty offers instant messaging in 3D for any web site [via Zemanta] [...]
4:06 am
UgoTrade » Blog Archive » NASA, Astrophysicists and Space Enthusiasts in Virtual Worlds said:
[...] into my Vivaty scene, this will not be “3D life such as you’d find in Second Life” as some blogs have [...]