Meerkat

Heard about Meerkat? 

No not the small mammal, rather it's the latest thing in social dysfunction...err...media.

However, there is a correlation.  If you get a bunch of Meerkats together they're called a mob...

Who cares...

Blown up by drunk geek fandom at this year's South by Southwest (SXSW) Meerkat is the latest social darling embraced by the technorati. 

In a word it's simply an app (isn't is always..) that allows you to stream video to twitter in real time.  If you're amongst the social set and you have an Iphone there's little doubt that you've at least tried it out.

Look folks, there's nothing new here including the fresh round of 12 million worth of investments from hipster venture capitalists. 

Of course there's never been anything like it which explains the excitement...  Well, unless you've used Twitstreams or Broadcast for Friends.  Remember those? Yeah, me neither...

It's a live streaming app that only allows "live, no reruns" meaning if you want someone's stream later you'd better hope the budding documentarian uploads the video to his/her YouTube channel.   There is no cloud storage option. 

The only real difference here is that there's more bandwidth to waste now.  So everyone with an Iphone is streaming everything from their vacation to their lunch. 

Get ready for those realtime lunch videos!  Now you can watch every sloppy bite!  

Even celebrities have jumped onboard like the Today show's Al Roker streaming his haircut.  If watching Al Roker getting his head shaved isn't the poster child for the app I don't know what is...

I suppose you've "arrived" when Vogue gets excited about you....

So obviously I'm not impressed.  Not because I'm against innovation but rather I'm against useless fads.  Remember Flappy Bird? How about Vine?  Two more examples of million dollar ideas with absolutely no redeeming value.

That's what ticks me off.  I'm sick of apps that do nothing more than make users look more stupid than they already do.  Where's the benefit?  What's new here?  Nothing really, it's just another case of technology enabling a convergence between bad judgment and alcohol.    

In the end the only real winners are the developers and the cell carriers raking in the bucks when clueless users blow past their data limits.

There's nothing new here, move along to the next meme...