"Explore the world through someone else's eyes"... and no I'm not referring to a warg.

Last month I wrote a post about a few of Twitter's aggressive growth initiatives. Today, I share with you their newest one, Periscope.

Launched just two days ago, Periscope is Twitter's response to Meerkat, a live-streaming video app.  Although it is only available on iOS devices, the product has attracted the attention of many users and brands.

What is Periscope?  It is a platform for streaming live video from your iPhone from anywhere in the world (that has a connection). Just download the app from the Apple store, log in, enable the camera and become a broadcaster.  Not in the mood to be famous yet?  Well, you can always watch other peoples' videos instead.  The popularity of live-streaming videos is the idea of discovering the world through someone else's eyes.  As described by the creators of Periscope, " a picture may be worth a thousand words, but live video can take you someplace and show you around." As with Twitter, this app allows you to follow people and be alerted of their new broadcasts.  You also have the option to browse around for something that catches your eyes.  And if you don't have enough time to watch the entire video, you can always save it and watch it later.

 And the most loved feature of Periscope... the hearts that you can give to the videos you like or love.  Similar to a "like" button, this feature lets you send a heart or even many hearts to the broadcaster of your choice and with enough hearts, this person can be featured as a "most loved".

The product has already gained some early adopters.  Adweek, shared information on how 4 brands are already using the Periscope app.

Spotify, a music-streaming service posted a behind-the-scenes video with Conor O'Brien from the band Villagers.

"During the live stream, 382 viewers tuned into the live stream, racking up 1,534 hearts—the equivalent of "liking" something on Facebook.  As of 6 p.m. last night, the video had been replayed 99 times and received 255 hearts."

 

The brand used the app to create a short video titled "Stop by to say what's up."

"The short clip showed a girl spelling out the word "Swag" on a chalkboard with a table full of branded T-shirts and hats in front of it."

 

Red Bull, known for their sense of adventure and risk, always open to trying new things, experimented with Periscope during Miami Music Week this weekend. 

"The brand will live stream events happening at its Red Bull Guest House. Social content will also be pushed out via Twitter and Snapchat."

And the fourth brand, DKNY, gave viewers a look into its fashion closet last week, shortly after announcing it had opened an account via Twitter.

"Fashion brands already regularly employ Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to give folks a peek into its world, so it's likely that fashion-minded marketers will embrace Periscope."

Are you willing to give Periscope a try?

You will be missed GigaOm!

This past Monday, GigaOm announced that all operations have ceased.  A tech news powerhouse, GigaOm is a global voice on emerging technologies.  Founded in 2006 by tech blogger Om Malik, the company started out as a side project growing to a company valuation of $30 million in just six years and then shut down in the past two days.  Here's what they had to say to their readers:

What happened?  Was it because they decided to move to a subscription base revenue model in 2008, was it because other blogs like Reddit, Mashable, TechCrunch and Business Insider were ahead or was it because the company was mismanaged?  It could be for any of these reasons, all of these reasons or none of these reasons.  A lot of writers have shared their opinion, what's yours?

Tech Blog GigaOm Abruptly Shuts Down by NYTimes

GigaOm Was Universally Respected. Too Bad Respect Doesn’t Pay the Bills by Slate

Farewell, GigaOm: Tech news powerhouse shutting down by Mashable

GigaOm And The Death Of Editorial by Forbes

Pioneering tech blog Gigaom shuts down after running out of money by The Verge

And the last writer who shared his thoughts on the subject matter, founder Om Malik.  Although this blog post doesn't share any details on what he thinks caused this, it definitely demonstrates his passion and commitment to the company.

Saving Google+

Google+ was first launched in June 2011 as a response to Facebook’s growing members.  On the surface, it seems exactly like Facebook: you can share updates with friends, receive and follow your friends’ activity feeds, chat and even group your friends based on your relationships with them.

After almost 4 years, Google+ has not been as successful as they had hoped.  Although Google claims that they have 300 million active users, most people I know don’t use the service and maybe even some who work at Google will confirm it is a “failed” product.  Is Google being truthful about their statistics or are they being sneaky about their criteria for a Google Plus user?

In a recent CNN article, Google’s product chief Sundar Pichai stated that Google+ will be re-branded.  Although the number of users is billions less than Facebook, the investment was too big for Google to dump (it's a sunk cost!) so they are going to leverage the successful features.

Google+ has had success with the “Hangout” and “Photo” features.  I have used Google Hangout and found it to be very useful for video conferencing for group projects and you can also have a lot of fun with the photo taking feature in Hangout.  These features will continue to exist as products,  just re-organized differently.  The social feed aspect will move into a new service called “streams” and allow users to post to Google+.

In addition to these changes, a recent Mashable article shares information about a new version of Google Contacts that aims to combine users' Gmail and Google+ connections in one place to create a more streamlined experience.  "The new Google Contacts comes with a fresh look and feel, and conveniently pools together all your contacts, circles, and the people you talk to most in Gmail," Google writes in a blog post.  "The new Contacts ensures that the info you see is still accurate and ready to use by blending your contact’s Google profile information with the stuff you already have."

Contacts will be rolling out to Gmail users "over the next few weeks."