Jan 24, 2008 05:40 PM
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San Francisco, 3:44 PM
Tue Feb 9
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Chirp, a so-called "social screensaver," has launched to the usual barrage of press. How could a company stocked with such brilliant founders — CEO Eve Phillips has a masters degree from MIT and an MBA from Stanford — have come up with such a brain-dead business model? Screensavers have been technologically outmoded for a decade or more, and they waste electricity. As more computer users switch to laptops, and close up the lid when the computer's not in use, do they have much of a future?
Even worse is the content Chirp displays on its screensaver: Updates from your social networks. Eric Eldon writes at VentureBeat:
It reminds me of the SETI screensaver — you know, the one that uses your computer to analyze radio telescope data collected by researchers, trying to find signs of intelligent, extraterrestrial communication. The difference is, Chirp is a screensaver that helps you see intelligent communication from your friends.Right. Have Chirp's founders actually used any social networks? Intelligent communication is the last thing one should expect from them.
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