Test-Driving Joost: Beyond Slick, and Not Really a YouTube Competitor

Joost was kind enough to make me a beta tester, so I spent a half-hour last Friday checking out the service.  Key observations:

• In its current form, Joost is more like TV than online video.  As a result, it is not yet a direct competitor to YouTube.

• The interface is super-slick: Full screen, floating translucent menu bar, high-quality sound and video.  Even if it were possible to watch amateur videos on Joost, you would not want to–because they would look horrible.

• Joost will be awesome for watching music videos, movie trailers, and sports highlights.  These categories constitute a meaningful percentage of YouTube views, so there will be some overlap (although I still can’t understand why music and movie companies would not want these videos available everywhere).

• The user-experience is definitely more video-on-demand than Internet, and this will likely create tension for those who like to consume their online video at work: Watching a few short clips on YouTube while checking online news and email is one thing.  Ginning up the "Soccer Channel" and watching the "100 top acrobatic goals" for a half-hour is another.

• Unlike YouTube, which is all about video storage and delivery and user choice, Joost appears to be at least half about programming.  This will certainly appeal to traditional media companies, who love programming.  Whether it will appeal to impatient, busy Internet users who hate being programmed, however, is another question.

• Joost’s advertising currently takes the form of "brought to you by" full screen ads with logos that precede the launching of your "channel" selection.  These are unobtrusive, tolerable, and vastly preferable to pre-rolls, which make you loathe both advertiser and content provider.  They also presumably don’t generate anywhere near as much revenue.

• Bottom line: Joost is a full-on entertainment tool that will compete with traditional television as much as it competes with YouTube.  The risk for the company is that the service will end up being neither fish nor fowl: Not as good as TV (the "100 top acrobatic goals" are good on a 17-inch PC screen, but amazing on a 42-inch TV), and not as simple, convenient, and user-driven as YouTube.  It should be a hit with those who live on music videos, though.