Thoughts on Joost…

@ May 5, 2007

Last week, I sent out Joost invitations to a number of friends and basically to anybody who wanted to try it out. Since then, I’ve been hearing mixed opinions from people about it, so I thought I’d post my thoughts on the subject.

I was first invited to the private beta back when it was still called The Venice Project, and things have certainly come a long way since then. The quality of the service has improved, the client finally runs in Vista without weird workarounds, and several new “channels” have been added.

Unfortunately, I still think that the quality of the content on the network is lacking, and most other people I’ve talked to share that opinion. There are a couple of channels that are interesting to watch now and then, but I’d really like to see more mainstream content – shows that people actually watch every week. ABC and NBC, for instance, already allow people to watch popular shows like LOST and Heroes for free on their respective sites. Partnerships between Joost and these networks could be mutually beneficial – the networks would be able to take advantage of Joost’s excellent peer-to-peer network to stream content and save on bandwidth, and Joost itself would become significantly more appealing to users if it got a handful of popular shows.

Still, there’s a lot to like about Joost. One of the most interesting end-user features for me is the “Channel Chat” widget. Each channel has a separate chatroom where viewers can interact with each other without leaving the full-screen, TV-like Joost interface. Imagine watching an episode of LOST and being able to discuss theories with other viewers in realtime during commercial breaks. I think that would be lots of fun, and would bring a new world of interactivity to television. The infrastructure is already in place, but good content is still missing!

I also like how the video stream resumes from where you left off if you turn off the app and turn it back on later. As Mark from the OSNN forum said, that’s how on-demand TV should always have been.

So yeah, I think Joost has a lot of potential, but it won’t become something I use on a daily basis unless better content begins to show up.

What are your thoughts?

(Still don’t have an invite? Leave a comment here)

Comments 10 comments
  • http://ganai.com Omar

    “Imagine watching an episode of LOST and being able to discuss theories with other viewers in realtime during commercial breaks.”

    Sounds awesome in theory, but there would always be the pricks who would spoil episodes for everyone else.

  • http://ganai.com Omar

    “Imagine watching an episode of LOST and being able to discuss theories with other viewers in realtime during commercial breaks.”

    Sounds awesome in theory, but there would always be the pricks who would spoil episodes for everyone else.

  • Geoff

    I’d absolutely love it for Comedy Central to go worldwide through Joost. Very cool system though. The beeb (aka BBC) has been pretty good at picking up on new technologies, maybe they will join with Joost, or produce programming for it. Get more of the new Doctor Who out to the world :D David Tennant rocks :P

  • Geoff

    I’d absolutely love it for Comedy Central to go worldwide through Joost. Very cool system though. The beeb (aka BBC) has been pretty good at picking up on new technologies, maybe they will join with Joost, or produce programming for it. Get more of the new Doctor Who out to the world :D David Tennant rocks :P

  • Nima

    I feel exactly the same way. The tech behind it is pretty cool and it has some nice features here and there, but the content is just meh. I watched a few things here and there, but there is honestly no content on there that interests me… Hopefully we will see more in the near future, or I am done with Joost.

  • Nima

    I feel exactly the same way. The tech behind it is pretty cool and it has some nice features here and there, but the content is just meh. I watched a few things here and there, but there is honestly no content on there that interests me… Hopefully we will see more in the near future, or I am done with Joost.

  • http://kunal.kundaje.net Kunal Kundaje

    @Geoff: Never watched Doctor Who, but I’ll say yes to any good new content. :) Would be nice to see The Daily Show, Colbert Report, etc. on the Comedy Central channel in Joost too.

    @Omar: That’s a good point. They also have a Jabber/GTalk widget, so I guess you could also set up a private chatroom with just friends.

  • http://kunal.kundaje.net/ Kunal

    @Geoff: Never watched Doctor Who, but I’ll say yes to any good new content. :) Would be nice to see The Daily Show, Colbert Report, etc. on the Comedy Central channel in Joost too.

    @Omar: That’s a good point. They also have a Jabber/GTalk widget, so I guess you could also set up a private chatroom with just friends.

  • Locke

    I think Joost has a lot of potential, but it won’t become something I use on a daily basis unless better content begins to show up.

  • Locke

    I think Joost has a lot of potential, but it won’t become something I use on a daily basis unless better content begins to show up.