Hitwise actually predicted this week’s launch of Lively, the virtual chat world introduced Tuesday, and also predicted the Google Health service launched before it in May. It’s no magic trick, though: Analysts there started looking at data of Google’s clickstream traffic. That lets them see what types of sites are getting the most traffic from Google — and thus have highest interest to Google’s users.

“Our thinking was that Google might want to fill natural gaps in its portfolio of offerings based on the interests of its users,” Hitwise UK VP of Research Heather Hopkins explains. “We looked at which categories are receiving the most traffic from Google in which Google does not have its own property.”

Back in January, health and entertainment topped the list. The newest analysis shows cars and tunes as the most likely next targets, leading Hitwise to put its money on Google Auto and Google Music for the future.

Hitwise has sure had decent odds thus far. Might be time to place a friendly office bet and see what happens.

Prediction: Google Auto & Music Up Next is a post from: The Inquisitr

My initial negative on the product was a lack of support for Macs, a very un-Google like product launch. Daring to open Windows in VMWare Fusion, I eventually decided to give it a go. Maybe it doesn’t like Vista in a virtual machine, but I found Lively close to unusable. Slow to load, clunky to use, and the popular rooms devoid of avatars to interact with. Underwhelmed isn’t the half of my reaction. But am I alone? Here’s a pick of the coverage from FriendFeed. I tried to find someone who praises it, but aside from a couple of people suggesting that we should all give it a longer chance, I couldn’t find any positives reviews.

l0ckergn0me:“I didn’t realize it was possible, but Google Lively is WORSE than Second Life. LIke, astoundingly bad. Don’t try.”

tried it out today and wasn’t too impressed. Although if they implement an API that would allow me to integrate my users in there might be some value to it. – Brad Williams

I tried it, it is a very, very, very unpolished 3d chat room, no more, no less.. it’s not a social medium… it’s a fancy chat room. – David Silvernail

Almost all of Google’s first efforts are crap. They are betting the farm on distributed though, and this seems to fit with that strategy perfectly. – Kevin

No Mac version is beyond insane, it is just flat-out stupid. Why on earth didn’t they wait until they could release it for every platform? I mean, unless the Windows folks are being used as open beta testers…. Just seems very odd. I agree with you Duncan. – James Mowery via twhirl

I hate to say it, but I agree. The quality of the graphics is great, but the UI is downright awkward to use. The pop-up bubble messages are annoying and I didn’t see any way of private chatting. Customizing your avatar is pretty minimal too. – Jim McCusker

When a polished product exists in the market – i.e. Second Life.. why… oh… why! would you release this product that is clearly only in a pre-alpha version state? – David Silvernail

Mine kept closing itself down before I could choose a character. Will keep trying. – sergiooooooo

i agree, at first glance… FAIL – tommy payne

Candace Holly“Conclusion on Lively? It’s Second Life…without the furries. Scary, bad “urgd” speak. It also crashes Firefox. I don’t see Lively having any appeal whatsoever to anyone over the age of 15.”

Who are we kidding. This thing stinks. the only thing is has going for it is Google. – Greg
Down for me now and crashing a lot (practically always), but I prefer the Lively design style to Second Life… and having this be somewhat URL/ browser-based is a big plus as well. Let’s hope they release a more stable update one of these days… – Philipp Lenssen

Google Lively not well recieved is a post from: The Inquisitr

Engineers have just revealed the first release of Lively by Google — a virtual 3D chatting experience powered by GTalk. The platform, reminiscent of a Second Life-type setup, lets you customize an avatar along with a complete room. Characters can then interact with other, so you could actually come over and give me a virtual hug. Aww.

Lively also has built-in YouTube support that gives you the option of playing videos on virtual TVs and showing pictures on virtual frames within the rooms. Not bad.

The utility is even designed to interact with your desktop, so you can run any of the features right from your own environment. Google is also hoping to see Lively rooms embedded on various web sites for user interaction.

Here’s one, just for kicks, called Tech Stop:

And here’s a video demo of all the Lively features:

Looks like we may have another Google home run on our hands.

Getting “Lively” With Google’s Virtual World is a post from: The Inquisitr