Without much fanfare, Joost has finally turned on the browser version of its Web video service, as we noted it would last month. The new site is all based on Flash, and lets you watch old Bruce Lee flicks, Sci-Fi movies like The Fifth Element, and clips from Barely Political and Comedy Central.
The Flash site comes almost exactly a year after I wrote a post pointing out that Joost’s peer-to-peer software approach would not work and that it would have to switch over to Flash-based video, just like every other Web video service. People don’t want to have to launch a new piece of software to watch video on their computers. They want to watch it in their browsers (so they can quickly surf to another page when they realize how much the video they are watching sucks—or, if it doesn’t suck, quickly switch tabs when the boss walks by their desk).
It took Joost a year, but it has finally realized that the Web is where it’s at. Now all it has to do is compete with Hulu, YouTube, Veoh, DailyMotion, and the hundred other video sites out there.
Joost is all advertising-supported, and there are social elements like an activity stream showing you what all your friends are watching. Which is great, except that it assumes your friends are watching Joost. They aren’t.
(Hat tip to Gubatron).
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Multipass.
chickan good!
lilu dallas, multipass
Joost you had our attention and now we’re all too busy watching the daily show on Hulu to care.
Pretty much the reality of the situation.
Oh well. Just another $45m down the toilet.
And nobody seems to care…
Except for the fact Hulu is US-only, and Joost apparently isn’t
Which is going to give them even harder time to get content
It lost the first mover advantage and it now has to deal with so much competition. Well, wtih the launch of the all-flash website, it also means I can uninstall Joost form my computer right?
If only I did not need an account to watch. Knowing my luck I will signup and then be told I can’t watch because I am not in the USA. Don’t even think I’ll bother.
I know it sucks. I live in the Canada and so we hear about all the cool stuff in the states but we can’t get access to it. It is like we don’t exist. Amazon is the worst. Amazon.ca offers 1/5th of the inventory amazon.com does but 1/2 the products in Amazon.com don’t even ship to Canada which you don’t know until after you try to buy them.
Even when companies do offer services in Canada they can’t seem to grasp that we have provinces and postal codes. Webex is a billion dollar company and they can’t even figure out this small detail.
As for TV shows we are stuck with Itunes pathetic selection of TV shows which include stupid Canadian content which sucks, but we can’t blame Apple for this in Canada. Apparently the whole Napster thing was or still is legal here. At least that is what someone told me.
The thing these big TV companies don’t get is the lack of accessible TV shows and movies online to download doesn’t make people go buy the DVD’s, it makes them go to a torrent site and rip it illegally. I don’t want to wait 6 months for the DVD and if you won’t offer me a place to buy it online, I will steal it online.
Its a good move to port all the content over to browser based flash, but Joost has 1 integral problem which in my opinion would have been better addressed before ditching their proprietary P2P technology. This problem of which I speak is, of course, the quality of content.
I just had a quick scan of the favourites, and the films sections and can honestly say there isn’t anything there which is worth watching. It’ll never compete with IP spoofing Hulu and Torrent Downloads combined with BBC’s Iplayer, 4OD and ITV Catchup until it can actually give us something worth watching!
-tobeconfirmed-
I don’t like the fact I have to sign up first to watch anything. People these days have short attention span and patience when it comes to internet viewing. If I have to spend the time to sign up just to see if the site is worth it, then I’m going to elsewhere.
OMG, You really do have to signup to watch *anything* !
WTF? Is Joost completely insane?
I like.
Multipass.
Bruno
Turismo http://www.siara.tur.br
Joost might be worth watching if they can move onto devices like game consoles
like the Wii ,PS3 , Mobile Phones ,the ROKU Box this is where I think they are headed now .
“They want to watch it in their browsers (so they can quickly surf to another page when they realize how much the video they are watching sucks—or, if it doesn’t suck, quickly switch tabs when the boss walks by their desk).”
How the f*ck can a site pitch itself to advertisers if its audience can and will flit away at any time? How can Joost (or Hulu or Veoh) hope to pay for content and bandwidth without advertising? Joost’s had lots of problems among them world-class arrogance but the lack of interesting programming was the killer.
The big take away here is that TechCrunch was dead wrong … it turns out that “Clown Co.” (A.K.A hulu) is in fact the superior source and Joost is in fact rather insignificant.
Ding ding ding! We have a winner…
TC is usually dead wrong. Nothing new.
Yeah, we were wrong about Hulu. But at least we admitted it. In fact, we changed our tune the day it launched. And it won a Crunchie last year. So we moved on a long time ago.
missed their window of opportunity. mindshare has gone elsewhere
Nah, no one cares.
Meanwhile, I got into the sling.com beta this morning, and they’ve done a really nice job. A lot of the social features are neutered ATM because they only work with other beta participants (of which there are 1700 so far), but the site itself is very well done.
Show subscriptions are especially handy.
I thought I would give it a try, but then I was greeted by a horribly annoying video that started automatically playing. All I heard was “Welcome to Joost” and I immediately closed the window. I refuse to stay at sites that force me to listen to and watch stuff I didn’t choose. Let me know when that “feature” is gone.
This is really no different from the video game console market. I have said for years that the *games* that are available for the system will largely determine the success of the console. The same will apply with every new video portal; if the *content* is there they will win.
Starving Entrepreneurs (wanted)
I tried logging in with my existing Joost account. However, the overlay made the sound in the background (the annoying clippy) so skipping that it was horrible.
Also, the login button didn’t work on second attempt so I just ditched it all together. Better luck next time!
Hey Joost …. start broadcasting CNN not on demand but live CNN or something similar; the Internet News Channel (INC) and ESPN or a equivalent to it!
Your competition is not doing this - get on this bandwagon before someone else does!
Just checked it out …. confusing UI. THe software Joost had channels some played a continuous stream of music videos or branded channels. Im not seeing that on the site ….all content is just mixed up ….
Needs a better focused and less confusing UI - focus on content
This has been on for the last month or so. http://crenk.com/joost-music-t.....r-browser/
What was from the last month was the web based version, but it still used a Joost plugin. Now it’s using Flash.
Janus and Niklas have the knack of getting a lot out of concepts, albeit not new concepts. Their strength is not in tech creativity but in social creativity. Most likely, they’ll have a few tricks up the sleeve.
It’s weird, Techcrunch always makes it sound like Hulu and the others have some amazing advantage by being online a year earlier - it seems to me that Joost can pop-up and gain the same traction as long as they have decent content.
another hulu type site..
http://gatesandjobs.blogspot.com/
Hulu is much better i think. Maybe i give this a try.
Joost app on the Mac was nice, even using the Apple Remote correctly. Flash is teh suck, IMO — just doesn’t make for a nice living room experience.
“Enter” page upon first visit, annoying Mascot (reminds me of Clippy), signup required to watch a video… they are missing the point… again.
Tried it out, and I am glad that Joost launched a web version (as I uninstalled the software many moons ago due to its frequent crashes).
While they have a lot of content similar to Hulu, the UI is horrible. Also their categorization is off, as they mix scifi and horror together (even if its unrelated).
I would post more items that I think they need to improve on Joost (as it does have potential), but I do not want to turn this comment into a mini blog post.
Just tried to check it out and it was down for maintenance… WTF! How many times will Joost stumble. Internet TV is here without it - Amazon, Hulu, DVWN, Netflix rule.
when I tried to register I got this -
“Something went wrong. Please try again later.”
great!….
Nice web 2.0 website, but UI have to be improved
I love it… i missed it… i hope they don’t region lock us…
So far sound is better than youtube, video quality seems less choppier but motion detection suffers from artifacts (so Transformers looks somewhat fine right now but maybe the more motion in the video the more squares you will be seeing).
Please Joost… Add classical G.I. Joe to your playlist? Sigma 6 sucks (Transformers Animated is at least a tad fun). Target me with all the ads you may want (do as Colbert Report and the Daily Show do… Place targeted ads in the spots where they should be… I’ll be more than happy to see them.
Joost…what a shame. They started early with the rest of them and lagged far behind against the unsolicited (and unpaid) advice they received from the tech community. Now they’re way behind and the wave is taking them over…well, it’s not too late - all they need to do is find a core differentiator that sets them apart from the bunch…which is rapidly growing btw. Good luck, and don’t forget to listen to all this free advice.
Is it really “all flash” now or do you still have to download and install the P2P plug-in? Again, a friction point where people just drop off and move over to Hulu.
Yeah, maybe it’s fantastic, but not exactly a web best practice, watch the screenshot in the link and you’ll understand.
I can’t believe it!
they need to drop stupid login in process. any sites that require me to login i’ll take my business elsewhere.
Why is this stuck on the top of the website?
LISTEN JOOST, people would like a little porn. Had you done that you might have had a chance.
It’s good to hear that they also changing themselves for serving better. as always !!
Dunno, you all sound like a bunch of angry freaks. It’s a website that plays videos. Relax and enjoy.
Finally…
If Joost were smart they wouldn’t have launched a closed P2P client in the first place.
I saw a new Vuze client on another blog and it looks nice. Nice and open.
i think its great.. more competitors the better.. while I get to watch all the shows free.. thinking of ditching my 80$ Time Warner.. all i really watch there is Daily Show and some CNN.. both of which are online now..
Also can you please get Heroes??
signup required to watch a video = customer gone …. period
Since Hulu is US only, ill give Joost a try.
One of he main problems with joost was their lack of quality content. Im no real techie but isnt p2p quite powerful when it comes to delivering large amount of streamed data? (Considering the speed of pirate bay and other bittorentsites). If they´ve hooked the users with good shows I think a separate client would have been fine.
They were on to something but they failed in so many areas;Crap interface, no overview (where is the good stuff?),no communication with the users despite years of betatesting (their staff never seemed to visit the joost-forums).
And they oversold the product calling it internet TV, when ít was video-on-demand, labeling groups of videos as channels (thereby getting “hundreds” of channels), and constantly talking about big name content providers (CBS,Warner.CNN,Reuters, Discovery,MTV etc) but never telling the users what content they had licensed from those impressive mediacompanies (as if the users wouldn´t find out..). Joost was a good idea but very poorly executed.
what is the point of joost anymore? And for that matter, some more, more poetical questions for joost… http://web-poet.com/2008/10/15/on-flash/
Everyone’s overreacting. Online TV industry’s barely got off the ground, & a lotta people out there havent even watched any shows online yet, much less built any hard loyalty to one particular site. If Joost has good content they’ll succeed, if not they wont. It’s that simple, IMHO.