Joost In Time

Joost is this month's hot topic. And it will be for a while (or longer). Looks like the Skype guys have overtaken Google, Apple, Microsoft and a few others again. I have been using (or watching) Joost for a few days now and have to admit this is what I have been waiting for in terms of on-demand Internet television. The service is simple, just a couple of steps:

• Get invited (this is early beta, invitation only at the moment).
• Download and install the client software.
• Start the application, and you are in!

Joost feels like TV. It streams full screen video on demand, giving you the freedom to cruise the channels, pause, restart and - of course - search for things you are interested in. On top of that there are a few gooddies designed just to let you spend a whole day in an armchair. There is an RSS ticker, so your personalized feeds scroll in the background. And there is a Jabber / XMPP communicator built in, so you can log in using your Google Talk credentials and have an online chat or two while watching TV. The communicator also supports "inviting" friends to the show you are watching, so you can chat and comment on a movie or race or whatever is in your shared interests.

To be honest I have only two things on my Joost wishlist:

• Support for the Playstation 3 (or Nintendo Wii or Apple TV, I will stand another console...)
• Pandora - like rating system (thumbs up - I like it, thumbs down - I don't like it)

Joost is the harbinger of the new ways we will watch TV. That is why I see PC-less platforms like Apple TV or Sony PS3 in the very center of a living room. TV sets will be just TV sets - screens to display the image. But an intelligent, connected device like the PlayStation will run all the entertainment activities, from games through digital pictures to high definition movies and Internet TV.

On May 10th Joost closed a $45M financing round from five leading VCs, including Sequoia and CBS and Viacom. This constellation of partners guarantees Joost will have the right content and bright future. The Skype P2P experience guarantees they will thrive even with the current state of the Internet - for technical reference see the Joost P2P presentation by Calm MacCarthaigh. Well done, folks, keep pushing, I love this!