Joost Fan

Joost Stinks?

According to John Dvorak, Joost isn’t worth your time. The reasons he sights include the only content being infomercials for last-gen rock bands and commercials suddenly heard in the background as a background task.

While he has a reason to gripe, we must remember that Joost is still in beta. As a commenter pointed out, despite the very limited content, the ability to test Joost provides a proof of concept. They are just beginning to develop relationships with content providers and quality content will be available once Joost officially launches. The commercials and ads being played in the background is a known bug that will not be released in the final version. Sorry John, but with only one ad being played per hour, on-demand TV, and a great platform - Joost is here to stay.

          

Add comment January 31st, 2007

Do you Joost? Review from Yahoo! Tech

Robin Raskin from Yahoo! Tech wrote an article entitled “Do you Joost?”

In it, Marty Lafferty, CEO of a volunteer organization in the distributed computing industry says, “The fact that you have access to any TV program you like (of course, we’re talking about TV channels that have agreed to stream their content in the beta version of Joost) is simply amazing.”

          

Add comment January 29th, 2007

Joost Another YouTube? Review from Technology Review

Technology Review has an article about Joost and questions if it is another YouTube. Some points in the article include:

• The Joost browser will allow software developers to create their own plug-ins eventually
• The service is free and supported by one minute of targeted advertisements per hour.
• CBS’s webcast of the NCAA final-four tournament last month drew a record 250,000 simultaneous viewers. But 140,000 people were left in a digital waiting room. This is where Joost comes in.
• Unlike BitTorrent, which requires lengthy downloads, Joost is built for instant gratification. Anywhere in the world, it takes less than five seconds to change the channel.
• This technology has been bouncing around academic research for five to six years now
• Almost 90 percent of the code for Joost comes from open source, but it’s the final 10 percent that makes the difference.

You can read the entire Technology Review article here.

          

Add comment January 28th, 2007

Joost Review from Red Herring

Red Herring has a review of Joost on their website and in print. Some notable points include:

• “The ability to get content from multiple sources through one interface could make [Joost] very successful,” says David Hallerman, senior analyst at research firm eMarketer.
• Joost plans to eventually move the Internet service to television sets through set-top boxes.
• Joost must overcome several hurdles, including content providers and bandwidth issues
• Leading movie studios and television production firms are all notably absent from that lineup and without compelling content, Joost will be hard-pressed to turn a profit.
• There will be plenty of competition for advertisers from other services such as YouTube, Movielink, Apple iTunes, and BitTorrent

          

1 comment January 27th, 2007