Perhaps Google is of the belief that man's future lies not on earth, but in cyberspace. That would explain the constant stream of innovations from the Mountain View company to make the Internet more personable and personal.

Now, in its latest addition to the aptly-named Google Labs, the company has rolled out a challenge to virtual world giant Second Life with free software that lets people create their own online 3D worlds that can be embedded on websites and melded with other online functions. This feature is called Lively Google.

Niniane Wang, engineering manager at Google, explained on the company's blog that the Lively team is working on helping people experience a new dimension of the web, by allowing them to express themselves with and without words in the web places they're familiar with.

Lively users are able to customise their avatars as they please, chat and interact through animated actions. As Wang said, Google discovered in their user research how much more poignant it is to receive an animated hug than seeing the text ''[[hug]]''.

"You can also express your own personality by customising your avatar's look, showing people who you are without having to say a word. Of course, you can chat with each other, and you can also interact through animated actions," she said.

Users will be able to watch YouTube videos and other website content in these virtual rooms, as well as show photos in virtual picture frames inside the rooms, which can be integrated in Web sites and blogs, Google explained.

In addition to that, users will be able to choose an avatar and customize it, create rooms with their favorite furniture and decorative objects and choose a room shell. With Lively, a user can adapt his personal online realm to his own imagination. Examples shown include hip flats, sprawling ranches, and rooftops backed by cityscapes.

Lively users can invite friends' avatars over for visits by sending them online room addresses via email or instant messages, according to Wang. "If you enter a Lively room embedded on your favorite blog or website, you can immediately get a sense of the room creator's interests, just by looking at the furniture and environment they chose,'' she said.

The full integration of Lively into Internet destinations will change the way users surf the net, Google believes. Internet will become more personal than ever before, with personalization options everywhere and endless possibilities of interaction.

Entering the Lively environment requires Windows XP or Vista, Microsoft Internet Explorer or Firefox, and the Lively browser plug-in. Mac support may be a long time coming. A Google help document says that Lively is a Google Labs project that's still being tested. "We hope to support other platforms in the future, but for now you'll need a Windows system to access Lively," the help document says.

Google goes on to add that it is working with a small number of trusted testers, vendors and creative agencies on special items for Lively. The company says that it expects to enable more user content generation soon. At some point, there will almost certainly be virtual commerce and advertising.

This project is reminiscent of Second Life, which was launched in 2003 as an Internet-based virtual world that enabled people to interact through motion avatars. The project was developed by Linden Research Inc. and had its mainstream media peak in late 2006 and 2007.