JoostTeam

Posted by Brad Levinson on April 4, 2007 at 9:24 am

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Last night, Brad downloaded the latest update for Joost (still in beta, I have some tokens should any of my friends want!)

I covered the program around month back, saying that I was impressed with the way that it combines television viewing and widgets. I was excited about the impending deal with Viacom, as I felt the amount of content and channels on the program was disappointing and would likely inhibit my use of the program.

Well, I was right about the last part — I didn’t touch Joost since, and didn’t launch the program until I was told that Joost 0.9 was available. I was curious to see how the program was re-designed, and how the Viacom content was presented. I have to say, to be tough, that I’m no longer impressed. Why?

1. Channels are not intuitive, content is not organized: Scroll and scroll, what channels are on? Scroll some more. When you choose a channel, shows are not organized. Instead, you get a list of all episodes available. So, say you choose MTV. You’ve got 20 episodes of Laguna Beach, 10 episodes of non-music videos, and other things that I really don’t care about. However, they’re not sorted, just all listed. It feels like someone just puked up some content and threw up, right on screen.

2. Lack of openness: How do I add more channels if I like a video podcast and have the RSS feed to add? I can’t — there’s no way to bring new content in. So, if my favorite videocasts aren’t on the predetermined, Joost-approved list of content, there’s no way I can view them inside of the program. So, I have a choice: use several different IPTV programs (such as Democracy Player or iTunes), ignore my favorite videocasts, or ignore Joost.

3. There’s something missing. I just have this gut reaction that something much larger is missing. I’m unsatisfied, and I don’t know why. Someone tell me…tell me why.

I think that, for now, I’m going to stick with my iTunes/$40 Apple TV.

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Source: http://www.thebetastage.com/