Loopt = Creepy?

Loopt, I don’t know how to feel about you.  At first, I thought you were very creepy.  Thoughts of dirty old men, Looping unsuspecting tweeners with iphones into mall dates kept dashing through my mind.

Then I asked some friends about the new app and to my surprise a few had it.

I remember when online dating was uncouth and creepy. Now it seems to be almost commonplace.  So maybe Loopt just has to get past the awkward beginning stages to where it is more commonly accepted.  Young adults are going to go through some fun/uncomfortable moments when undesirable suitors ask to be loopt in, then follow their loop-friend, only to be blocked seconds later.

But i digress,  the big question I ask again is, why is this app special?  As Techcrunch themselves say, there is no reason facebook and myspace shouldn’t be doing this.  And once they do, don’t you think they will be able to do everything that Loopt does and better?  With much larger user pools to draw from.

At best, Loopt is a training ground, to show Facebook and Myspace what to avoid and what to perhaps copy.  As creepy as I may think it is, the GPS feature of iphones is too useful and cool to not do this.

All in all, the idea may have staying power, but it remains to be seen if any of these programs like Loopt, Moximity and Where can actually give us a product that isn’t easily duplicated and improved upon by the big guys.

Big Brother is watching you.

Twitter?

I don’t get it.  Why would I waste my time looking to see what small things in life are happening to people?  If it was important, wouldn’t they call/email/text me?  On the other end of the spectrum, who is writing these twitter posts?  Why devote time to a program revolving around single sentence statements?

The website states three examples of why I should use twitter:

1. Eating soup? Research shows that moms want to know.
2. Running late to a meeting? Your co–workers might find that useful.
3. Partying? Your friends may want to join you.

However, text messaging is more direct and universal for each case.

1 – My mom has a phone and is rarely on a computer;
2 – My co-workers have computers and phones, I don’t have a smartphone so taking the time to twitter would increase my tardiness;
3 – The majority of my friends have cellphones but won’t have or ever get twitter. so why not just send one mass text message for parties?

My friends all have phones, so I can call/text them without the need for twitter. (Also, you can now try sending text messages through your gmail account; so google, as it is to most companies, is a serious threat to any sort of traction twitter may have gained)

While bored at work, I look at people’s away messages on G-mail, Facebook, and AIM.  If these three applications somehow fell apart and no longer existed, then I could see a need for Twitter.

What really surprises me is the amount of hype and funding they get.

Series C – 15 Million?  Why? How does this site plan on making money?  What useful service do they provide that facebook and gmail don’t already provide for me?  And what is stopping facebook or gmail from providing it?

After this financial crisis, I bet the venture capital firms wish they could have a do-over.