There’s a lot of live video streaming competition out there right now, but Justin.tv remains the biggest (though Ustream says that’s up for debate). And it’s looking to hold that lead with a redesign launching today, along with some new features.
The new site has an overall cleaner and simplified look. And simplification is the key to another big change: The addition of big front page broadcaster. When you first load up the site you will see front and center a large video player with the phrase “Live broadcasting in one click.” If you click on the big red button below it, you’ll load up your camera options screen, where you pick a camera to record from. From there you can log-in or create an account to start broadcasting.
Previously, you had to log-in or set up an account first and could then start recording on a different page. This new way makes it much more obvious how to get recording right away.
Another change is the addition of a Meebo IM chat bar to each page on the site. Previously, chat only existed in channel chat rooms, but now the Meebo bar will allow you to continually chat no matter where you are on the site. Justin.tv says it’s the first live video site to use the Meebo bar, and has already seen 10% of its chat messages coming through as IMs, rather than in the chat areas on channels. That’s about 600,000 IMs out of 6 millon messages a day, we’re told. Expect that number to go up now that it’s sitewide.
As I said, Justin.tv remains the top live streaming site, but its competitors have all been making moves recently to try and spur usage. One big move was Mogulus recently rebranding to Livestream. Traffic to all of these sites across the board seems to be slipping. But when Ustream launched a redesign a year ago, it helped kick start growth.
Justin.tv just launched its Camtweet, live video on Twitter service, last week at our Real-Time Stream CrunchUp. This new simplified Justin.tv main experience, seems like an extension of the idea of simplicity, which I like. Justin.tv also launched a DVR feature last month.
Justin.tv is to YouTube as Twitter is to Google.
In my very humble opinion, of course.
Lets put the debate on which site is bigger to bed…
Google Trends Makes This Clear as Day:
http://trends.g...tin.tv&sa=N
Google Trends is definitely not accurate (skews because of JTV’s illegal international traffic..)
How does JTV think they can build a business with illegal content?
Check your blog post Michael on JTV:
Looks like your community is failing apart:
http://blog.jus...h-justintv.html
Just like Facebook was “falling apart” when their users complained about the redesign, too, right?
Dogs bark, Birds fly. Users bitch.
Hey, ustream is actually larger than justin according to both quantcast AND compete. Happened recently, but they’re still bigger.
Which one would you recommend?
Justin.tv, of course
New redesign sux mate. FYI i’m going over to Ustream when chnnels default to beta channel.
New channel sux mate. Gonna head over to Ustream when i’m forced into beta.
ustream.tv, of course
A nice coup for Meebo.
The new design works well and the integration of Meebo is very neat. Is Justin.tv bigger than Ustream though?
Awesome! JTV just keeps getting better and better!
Isn’t Justin.tv smaller than Ustream according to quantcast or something? Thats what its saying on Mashable.
Justin.tv has no content they can actually monetize…
Just illegal sports, TEEN suicides and Porn..
Suicide Link:
http://www.inqu...ve-on-justintv/
Porn:
http://www.tech...ries-into-cash/
The Justin.tv bashing is getting old – don’t you have anything better to do?
not so much bashing, but he is stating the obvious..
@Jason, we know JTV is a slum hole, get over it.
TBH. I think Justin.tv is bullsh!t.
Setting a maximum number of connections is so not cool.
I was watching a stream for less than 5minutes and I am hit with that.
The very least Ustream doesn’t do that to me.
You didn’t say anything about Justin.tv’s beta channel redesign, which so far has been a big bust with its users. If you read the justin.tv blog entry announcing the beta launch (http://blog.jus...got-secr…), very nearly all of the feedback is negative.
They seem to have neglected to get input from the existing user base on this redesign, and the heavy focus on the giant broadcast button on the home page leads me to believe that justin.tv is thinking more about growth rather than introducing changes that their existing community believes in and can get behind. We’ll see how that ends up in the long run.
What part of “beta” don’t you understand? This is HOW they get the feedback from the users, dumbass.
I remember watching the launch live, there was 5 views and I was 2nd.
Go Justin!!
Just an observation: We don’t hear enough about these live streaming websites.
If the trend holds, we may all be using them soon, so I’d love to hear more about them and other startups utilizing live recording and streaming.
does anybody know awdio.com ? a french startup streaming live music direct from about 150 clubs et music spots worldwide
WHAT the HELL is up with Justin TV?? I have been getting a 404 “bad request – webpage not found” for almost two weeks!! Help! This is The Handgunner writing, I had wanted to do a live from St.Clairsville Ohio mid-august but to do it I need to get to my channel. Cant even contact JTV tech support. Whahappened??
thanks for the post! i’ve checked justin.tv and i’m really amazed that these people did such a good job. too bad it doesn’t have the latests tv shows like gossip girls. wish also the quality would be the same as on cacaotv where you can watch free movies and TV shows online (over there : http://www.cacaotv.com). but at least these websites are better than torrent pirate bay because they are legal!
justin tv wants premiyer membership now for the past was good, but it is not no good