Google Kids Start to Grow Up

Times must be starting to get tough at Google (GOOG). They are actually cancelling a project. Today, Google decided to shut down Lively which they launch this summer. Lively allowed people to create avatars and virtual rooms which they could embed in blogs and other Web pages. They tried to capitalize on all the hype around Second Life, but the project never really picked up steam.

What is most interesting is how fast they cancelled this project. They annouce it in July and cancel it in November. They must be taking notes from Microsoft which recently did something similar when they cancel Microsoft Equipt.

Google obviously is not taking a long-term approach to this space. Google said on their official blog “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.” With their stock price losing over 400 points since January it seems that the Google boys are being forced to grow up and stop investing in so many money losing projects. Maybe they should also put their Dornier Alpha Jet on eBay and stop running a company like they are Peter Pan and the lost boys.