When I blogged Google's launch of Lively, I mentioned several similar systems including Imvu, But I did notice a couple of comments to posts on other blogs to the effect that Google hired one of Imvu's co-founders to help it produce its knock-off. Was this true?
Apparently so. At least, I've now got a (widely circulated) email from Cary Rosenzweig, Imvu's CEO, who says:
That Lively has IMVU elements should come as no surprise. Google offered to buy IMVU in October 2005. Four of the five co-founders rejected the offer, and IMVU continued as an independent company. The fifth co-founder, Mel Guymon, left to lead this IMVU-like project at Google.
Ahem, isn't that the sort of thing Microsoft is supposed to do?
Of course, nobody owns any specific type of application and 3D worlds have been around for a decade or more. It's far better to do what Roseweig does and say: "IMVU welcomes Google's validation of the virtual world space." However, this could turn out like Apple welcoming IBM into the PC market. Apple was the US market leader at the time, and almost got validated out of existence.
