<div>I’ve learnt two big lessons this week. One is that there’s no limit to how ridiculous a piece of technology can get. Two is that there’s no accounting for human tastes.<br /><br />Who would have thought that someone would go to the trouble of putting together an app that goes “Yo” (in the most annoying little voice, I might add) from one user to another and that this app would then go on to become among the five most popular apps on Apple’s App Store with 790,000 users already? And the story does not end there; investors are actually willing to back it up with $1.2 million – with more promised! Luckily, the Israeli duo, Moshe Hogeg and Or Arbel of Mobli, a company that develops more serious applications, seem to be unwilling to go crazy with Yo. Very sensibly, they’re waiting to see how it goes. It’s being suggested that Yo could be developed to include more interesting features, including different sounding Yo’s, and that it would be a perfect fit on a smartwatch.<br /><br /><img width="200" vspace="3" hspace="3" height="200" align="right" alt="" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=091e37ac-d961-4392-bcd6-67eb0be5c384&groupId=36166&t=1403451000810" />The Yo app and phenomenon has dominated social media news, made it to the Stephen Colbert show, and received due attention from hackers who’ve used it for a bit of target practice. You can check it out for yourself on iOS and Android and see if you become one of its addicted fans. I tried it for a bit and promptly and without regret, offloaded it. Like the developers, I’ve also often used punctuation marks to communicate with someone who understands the context. But a Yo is probably something I’d be able to tolerate say once a year at best. <br /><br />It’s funny when you think that the app wasn’t supposed to be out in the wild in the first place but was meant for internal communication. Even Apple reportedly rejected it as having too little substance. Who would have thought it would get that popular, though who knows how long the world’s amusement with it will last. When you look around, there are many other apps and games that are simple one-trick ponies but end up becoming frantically popular. I’d count Flappy Bird in that category. In fact, I’d even say Talking Tom, mimicking everything you say, should have outlived its funniness. But oh no. The art and science of viral content and its longevity has not been cracked yet. Which is why the future of Yo is being watched with great interest. But at this point I’d say one can neither ensure virality nor can you take it for granted and sometimes, it just knocks you off your feet. One thing’s for sure: things like Yo certainly teach us something we didn’t know about people.<br /> </div>
BW Reporters
Mala Bhargava has been writing on technology well before the advent of internet in Indians and before CDs made their way into computers. Mala writes on technology, social media, startups and fitness. A trained psychologist, she claims that her understanding of psychology helps her understand the human side of technology.
