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SWSX 2015 just finished up, ending the jockeying quest of thousands of marketers, entrepreneurs and major brands for that coveted social media and mainstream spotlight. And just like every year it\u2019s a small, unique bit of technology that caught a lot of attention.<\/p>\n Meerkat \u2013 an app that lets you live stream directly from your phone<\/a> \u2013 blew up at SWSX, generating a bunch of live streams and a ton of discussion. Twitter\u2019s decision to axe the app\u2019s ability to post directly to Twitter helped stir that pot (as did the announcement that they had acquired Periscope<\/a>, a beta product very similar to Meerkat). Meerkat is back on Twitter for now, but it will be interesting to see how those two get along once Periscope launches.<\/p>\n Not a lot of brands have jumped on Meerkat yet, which isn\u2019t all that unusual for a brand new platform. Twitter itself started as a small collection of users and it took a while for brands to recognise the potential. The more ephemeral nature of Meerkat\u2019s live streams may make it a challenge for brands to really leverage the technology.<\/p>\n MS has announced a new internet browser will be packaged alongside Windows 10<\/a>, codenamed \u2018Project Spartan\u2019. IE will still exist in some versions for compatibility reasons, but the new browser will replace it.<\/p>\n This is a pretty sure bet from Microsoft\u2019s corner, especially when you connect it with their announcement on providing the majority of their software for free<\/a>. It will be interesting to see how Project Spartan competes with Chrome, Safari and Firefox, especially since MS\u2019s user base will be fragmented even further between multiple versions of IE on top of Spartan.<\/p>\n![\"What](\"\/wpe-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/mzl_rgfuiwuy-300x300.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMicrosoft Retiring IE<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"browser1\"](\"\/wpe-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/browser1-1024x358.jpg\")
<\/a>As a strategist who has watched IE\u2019s market share and penetration drop consistently over the last few years, and given its less than stellar reputation (and less than stellar attempts to fix that reputation<\/a>), I\u2019m surprised it took them this long.<\/p>\n\n \n