Gadgetopia

Google Unplugs Lively as Hype Fades Over Virtual Worlds: Wow, this was fast. By comparison, Google Answers went on for four-and-a-half years.

Google portrayed the move away from user frivolity as a sound business move. “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,” the company said on a blog post.

In the past Google has shown a willingness to let projects linger with a “beta” tag for months and months. But the virtual experiment was apparently not worth even that effort.