One of the bands I play in has a bandleader who obsessively Periscopes. Every gig he sets up his phone, has a special wide angle lens, and is often fiddling with things or talking to his fans instead of focusing on the jazz at hand. There are all sorts of metaphysical discussions to be had about that but perhaps another day. For now, it appears that Google wants a piece of the Periscope pie, so they’re looking at their own “social streaming” solution. Before you start playing taps for Periscope, consider that Google historically has gotten social apps pretty wrong much of the time (*cough* google plus). However youtube does have incredible market penetration, so maybe they’ll be able to get it right. They also are battle Facebook, as they rush headlong into more and more and more video content. Life at 30fps…no, 17…no…5….no, wait, rebuffering….
