Mountain View, Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) has decided to shutter its Lively online virtual world at the end of the year, saying it wants "to ensure that we prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business."

Lively was launched as a Google Labs project in July because the company said it "wanted users to be able to interact with their friends and express themselves online in new ways."

The company is suggesting that users take videos and screenshots of their virtual creations within Lively before they become inaccessible at the end of December.

Related Links:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/lively-no-more.html

http://www.lively.com