I don't have any friends who use OnLive on a regular basis. Maybe you don't, either. But if the company's recent showing at E3 is any indication, you might not be able to ignore it for much longer.

For the uninitiated, OnLive is a streaming video-game service that allows you to play full-featured retail releases on your PC, Mac, or a dedicated OnLive Microconsole. You purchase access to games a la carte -- at retail price, usually -- or pay a monthly fee for unlimited use of a (smaller) selection of titles. You never actually download any files; what you see on your screen is streaming, like a YouTube video you can play. And all you need is an Internet connection.

That's the concept, anyway. In practice (or at least, in my personal experience), the service has been spotty, with an underwhelming library of games and shaky wireless connection quality if you try to use a laptop PC or Mac. But at E3, OnLive announced a possible game-changer: the ability to use the service on tablets like iPads, as well as via built-in software on devices like Blu-ray players and TVs -- no computer or console needed.

"Imagine playing on your TV at home," OnLive Director of Marketing Rachel Franklin says. "Then say you're going to your friend's house. You save your game and take your iPad with you. Then you pick up where you left off.... It's not about the end device; it's about the power of the cloud."

Cloud-based game saves aren't new technology, of course. Steam has been doing that for years. But while Steam has crossed the divide between PC and Mac (on some titles), they have yet to break into tablet and portable gaming. The potential of that concept is undeniably appealing.

Then again, tablets don't have controllers. Not a problem, says Franklin -- OnLive will offer a wireless controller that can pair with iPads and Android-based tablets, or you can use built-in touch controls for certain games. One such title, Ubisoft's upcoming From Dust, was on display at the OnLive booth at E3, complete with specially designed touch functionality.

But no one will care about the tech if it doesn't come with good games. So will the library of titles available via OnLive continue to expand?

"Absolutely," Franklin says. "We had 19 games available when we launched, and now we're up to 100. That's a huge milestone."

She lists off things like Borderlands, Homefront, and Duke Nukem Forever -- biggish names, yes, but hardly anything to set the gaming world ablaze. When I point out that EA just launched its Origin distribution platform, and that it might be tough to get EA games on a service that might cannibalize sales, Franklin shrugs it off.

"We've got a lot of publishers on board," she says. "They understand that our service is beneficial to them."

For the hardcore gamer, though, it's still a hard sell. Why would you leave your favored platform, with your friends list and Gamerscore and achievements, to bother with another system?

"It's about choice," Franklin says. "We want to make it easy to jump into a game from multiple entry points. Gamers are social creatures; we want to enable that."

To that end, OnLive will also implement Facebook integration, allowing users to post highlight videos from recent matches, status updates, and (most importantly) links to instantly join or watch a friend's game -- no other matchmaking required.

"There's a freedom there, a social engagement," Franklin says.

No matter how many ideas OnLive comes up with -- and it seems like they've got some good ones -- grabbing a share of the crowded gaming market is a big challenge. But Franklin stresses how far the company has come.

"There's room in the ecosystem for everybody," she says. "And there's a reason to use OnLive for every type of gamer."

You might not believe that yet. I'm not sure I do. But at the least, OnLive is getting harder to ignore.