GamesRadar have an interview with id Software's John Carmack looking at Quake Live, the upcoming free web-based Quake 3 derivative currently in development. There's some discussion about the game but perhaps the most interesting part is why id are trying something new interesting:

JC: I would say that there is this sense of trying to figure out what to do with PC gaming. Historically, id Software has been a PC gaming company, with consoles a secondary business that happened later. And even though the PC doesn’t get the focus that it used to, in many ways our hearts are still there, and we’d like to do things where the PC is the appropriate platform. [We’d like to] do something that really speaks to the future of where the PC can be superior to consoles.

Quake Live is currently in closed beta; you can apply to be part of the beta programme on the official site.

I'd like to see some new maps, hell its been 8.5 years since it was released, maybe get the best Community made maps in there or something.

As there is more to Quake III than q3dm6 :)

I think you mean q3dm17.

I'm in the beta but can't talk about it because of an NDA, but I'm really looking forward to this. Hopefully it hits mainstream and causes a resurgence of casual Q3CTF to come back!@#

I think a few guys on slashquit.net still have a few regular games if you're that interested trog.

much of muchness is q3live, better off playing quake3 in its current state.

Be interesting to see if they can get a more people into quake3 with this.

CTF gets played pretty much every night on the slashquit servers. Although its more of a hardcore crowd then 'casual'. Still there are newbies who play and seem to still enjoy it!

Man q3a...f***ing good times!!!!!

Lucky trog for being in the beta!

Yeah trog, at least 2 or 3 games of ctf go down of a nite on the slashquit.net servers.

I found quakeworld and quake2 to be much more fun than q3. Q3 just felt a bit soft compared to 1 and 2 which were solid. I think older graphics make FPS feel better or something.