Google’s “me too” virtual world Lively will be dead by the end of the year—just six months after it launched. It was almost inevitable though, as Google (NSDQ: GOOG) debuted Lively well after the virtual world frenzy had simmered down. The service also had to compete with established worlds like There.com, IMVU and even themed properties like MTV’s Virtual Laguna Beach. Lively traffic was marginal at best (via Compete stats), and given the state of the economy, even Google couldn’t afford to devote resources to a fledgling project. The company admitted as much in an official blog post: 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. Any guesses on which other Google projects might be on the bubble? Google Base?