Meerkat named for its pop up like behavior, is a jQuery plugin created by myself, Jarod Taylor. It was originally created to serve a specific purpose, however, by adding additional functionality to it, I’ve found several uses for it.

Whether it’s used as a simple promotional tool, a roost for advertisements, or even as an alternative to a splash or entry page; Meerkat is unobtrusive, cross-browser compatible, and degrades gracefully if Javascript has been disabled.

What does it do?

Meerkat, depending on the options you have set, will slide or fade in from the top or bottom of the browser window and remain in its fixed position while the rest of the page will scroll normally. You have a choice of providing a close option which will simply close Meerkat until the page has been reloaded, or a dontShow option, which will close Meerkat until the browser session has ended, or for a set amount of days, depending on the options you have defined.

Here is a quick look at the Meerkat function call with some basic settings. Keep in mind; none of the options are required. All Meerkat’s options carry default settings should you not include them in your function call.

$(document).ready(function(){
  meerkat({
	close: '.close-meerkat',
	meerkatPosition: 'bottom',
	animation: 'slide',
	animationSpeed: 'slow',
	height: '100px',
	background: '#463c30'
  });
});

Demo: http://jarodtaylor.com/meerkat/demos

How To: http://jarodtaylor.com/meerkat/howto

Download: http://jarodtaylor.com/meerkat/js/jquery.meerkat.1.0.js