Before I get to all of the RIA news this week, I wanted to give you guys an opportunity to get involved with the Weekly Round-Up. You can now submit items to be considered for it. In this way - you can ensure that the RIA news that is important to you can be covered here on the Weekly Wrap-Up.

As for the news this week, we have several things to talk about.

FEATURED: Google Launches Lively

This week, Google launched Lively. Lively.com describes it as an application where you can 'Create an avatar and chat with your friends in rooms you design'. The current version of Lively is only supported on Windows XP and Vista (although Mac and Linux version are reported to be on the way).

Official Google Blog
Be who you want on the web pages you visit

Matt Vella (Businessweek)
Live from Lively, Google's New 3D Virtual World

Flex for UI? It appears from riapedia.com that Google is using Flex for the UI of Lively.

RIAPedia
Google Uses Flex for Lively UI

Silverlight and Flex Video Codecs Compared

FlashComGuru has a comparison (done by Jan Ozer) of the different video codecs that are available for Flash and Silverlight. This comparison compares such things as: processor usage, dropped frames, and frame rate across multiple computers and operating systems.

Jan Ozer
Silverlight vs Flash: Video Codec Comparison

The Adobe SEO Announcement Revisited

I ran through the news about the Adobe SEO Announcement in last week's Round-Up, but the news is still coming. The initial announcement was heralded by many bloggers and quickly ridiculed by others. Justin-Everett Church (of the Adobe Flash Player Team) was quick to counter some of the initial criticism as well as Microsoft's claims on the current searchability of Silverlight content.

Justin Everett-Church (Adobe)
Microsoft's Response to Runtime Search

Running C and Python in the Browser

Dion Almaer blogged on Ajaxian about the work Scott Petersen is doing that enables C / C++ to run in the Flash Player. With tools like this being created, Dan Morrill is questioning if JavaScript 2 really makes sense.

It seems that at the moment, there are two separate thought patterns for the future of the web. First, continue to grow and develop the core languages and standards that are already in place (JavaScript 2). Second, to allow the web to be written in as many different languages as possible by creating implementations of the languages suitable for the browser (IronPython / IronRuby).

It will really be interesting to see how these implementations of already existing languages for the browser will affect the next version of the web.

Dion Almaer (Ajaxian)
LLVM and Running C as well as Python in the browser

Toolness.com
Running C and Python Code on the Web

Older Interview with Scott about this Project
Interview with Scott Petersen on the C/C++ in Flash Player Sneak

Are Developers Impatient with JavaFX

While browsing through some blogs this week I came across the blog of Per Olesen. In his post, he refers to JavaFX as 'A Forever Unfinished RIA Technology'. As I began to browse around, I quickly discovered that he wasn't the only one to hold this view. I think the thing that I really gained from Per, was the fact that Java developers want to see JavaFX succeed, but with the success of technologies Flex and Silverlight - these Java developers cannot wait much longer to 'throw their hat' into one of these technologies.

Per Olesen
JavaFX - A Forever Unfinished RIA Technology

Technophilia and Silverlight

Jesse Liberty posted an article this week dealing with 'The 5 Levels of Technophilia and Silverlight'. While his focus is obviously on Silverlight, every developer / entrepreneur should understand the adoption curve (or Quintiles of Technophilia as Jesse refers to it) for new technologies.

Jesse Liberty (Microsoft)
The 5 Levels of Technophilia and Silverlight

Dojo Breathing the AIR

Kevin Dangoor at SitePen announced the Dojo Toolbox this week which is an AIR application that allows online / offline viewing of the Dojo documentation as well as a build tool for Dojo projects.

Kevin Dangoor (SitePen)
Dojo Toolbox First Look

Dojo ToolBox Download Page

Flex Component Explorer

Greg Wilson (of Adobe) blogged about a tool that has been around - but one which many developers may not be familiar with: The Flex 3 Component Explorer. This resource is provides a quick way for developers (either new Flex developers or experienced ones) to see the components available in Flex as well as the code that is required to use those components.

Greg Wilson (Adobe)
Flex 3 Component Explorer - a must for Flex beginners

Flex 3 Component Explorer

Facebook as an RIA Platform

Steven Webster, of Adobe Consulting, blogged about how a financial institution is now using Facebook as a platform for one of their online banking applications.

Steven Webster (Adobe Consulting)
Enterprise Web 2.0 - Banking on Facebook

Initial Article
SEFCU taps Facebook

Conclusion

Was there something that you felt I should cover, but didn't? Is there a technology you would like to see covered on the Weekly Wrap-Up? Go ahead and get involved and submit your news this week.

Read more from David Tucker.