Up Periscope! Down Meerkat?

Video killed the radio star…

and Periscope may slaughter Meerkat!

I hit “Publish Post” after finishing my last blog…then faster than the blink of a mongoose eye, stats reveal that Twitter’s own app, Periscope has as many users as the newly-launched Meerkat app. Celebrities and news channels are signing up, and citizen journalists used it to film the East Village explosion and fire.

Because Twitter has a built-in user base (of at least 232 million), they have a huge and instant audience. Poor Meerkat. Well, not really all that poor. They just received $14 million in funding.

As of this writing, Whole Foods, Jimmy Fallon, and major news outlets (and Mike Bloomberg himself) are wielding Periscope. As are these major brands. I’m sure more will follow. Between Periscope, Meerkat, Instagram, Pinterst, Vine, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and blogs, we are all in the epicenter of a giant Wayne’s World of social media. I’m also reminded of the Seinfeld episode in which Kramer buys Merv Griffin’s couch and TV set and launches a talk show.

Home movies were stored in giant canisters like these

I grew up with 8mm home movies. They weren’t a steady stream of live moments. They required an expensive movie camera (silent and huge at first, when my Dad used to secretly film my parties…and then compact and hi def by the time my own second child was born). We used to gather ’round and watch these amateur films together. My kids still like this ritual and they view it as something special and surprising.

Now, people don’t think of shooting and watching moments as a sacred occasion. We live in a world of endlessly streaming stuff.

Will Periscope sink Meerkat? Will home movies make a comeback? Will we all have miniature cameras implanted in our eyeballs someday? Stay tuned…the answer will be coming to your personal smart device. If you care to watch.

And here’s some more stuff about Periscopes…old and new…

	“Up Periscope” was the title of a movie made in 1959. And “Down Periscope” was a 1996 comedy.
	Let the fight begin! Periscope versus Meerkat.
	The failure of Justin.tv.
	Who invented the first movie camera? Put down that iPhone and Find out here!