A few months back I heard about The Venice Project, one more video player in the ever-growing field of video players. I’m always curious to hear why this player is different than every other player, so I signed up to become a beta tester. I was eager to download the application, until I learned there is no mac version. Who are these people who put out non-mac products? Mac users are first movers and the influentials, but I digress.
A few weeks later, I got an email, under the subject line, “We’re so Joost!” The Venice Project announced that they have changed the name of their project to Joost.
Still no mac…
So I forgot about it.
Earlier this week I got another email from Joost. They have a mac application. Wait, they’ve taken it down.
Now it’s back up! I’ve finally downloaded Joost and at first glance I really like. Joost is a different kind of player from your typical flash player, save the Democracy Player or iTunes, in that you have to first download the application to get it to work. The application is 13 mgs. But unlike the traditional flash players, Joost has its own content, a lot of it!
Joost’s original channels include music from Diddy’s Channel featuring artists like Young Joc. Warner Music has a channel so do the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Green Day. Joost has content from EchoDitto client Lime and Indycar and National Geographic.
On top of short content from these content providers, Joost features full length movies on its IndyFlix channel.
As if I can’t say enough already about Joost, it has a Widgets menu where users can instant message, read a newsticker, rate videos and chat. I guess chat is somehow different than instant message. Since Joost is full screen, they even provide users with a clock widget so they don’t lose track of time while watching all of Joost’s content.
Joost represents the future of television. No longer is there a need to worry about time restrictions, why are shows 30 and 60 minutes? There is no restriction to the type or the amount of content. Look at all these different channels. Content is easily targeted to niche demographics but at the same users have the option to discover more.
Go to Joost.com to apply to become a beta tester. Then drop me a line in the comments section to tell me what you think about the product.
Update: Viacom announced Feb. 22, that they will provide content to Joost.
