Joost launched its new Flash-based, download-free global web video service at www.joost.com. In addition, Joost features a number of social tools which are designed to help people navigate through the largest online library of legal video programming and to integrate user expression directly into the service.
“People have always relied on their friends’ recommendations to figure out which movies they want to watch, or talked about their favorite TV shows and moments with friends and colleagues – and now Joost has combined those real-life experiences in one online destination,” said Mike Volpi, CEO, Joost. “Our integrated social tools make it easier than ever for people to find the shows, film and music they want to watch, and to form communities around that content, which ultimately enriches their overall experience.”
The new website features a number of ways that people can interact with video and with other people on Joost: they can voice their opinions about video through comments, “shouts” or tags; they can find out what their friends are watching by adding friends through most major online webmail services via the Friends section; or they may interact with others in the Joost community through groups around their favorite shows, characters or artists.
Also new is the JoostFeed, which aggregates all of the activities that are happening on Joost in order to help guide a person’s Joost experience. The JoostFeed is viewable on Joost or can be exported to any online social tool or website. Joost also is working with a number of third-party platforms, including Boxee, chumby, Delicious, Digg, FriendFeed, Lifestream, Meebo, Mister Wong, Netlog, Netvibes, reddit and VideoSurf, to make it easier for people to use and access Joost across the web. In addition, Joost will implement Facebook Connect, which allows people to enjoy Joost within the context of their real identity and friendships on Facebook.
Today, Joost has more than 46,000 professionally-produced videos for a total of more than 8,000 hours of video entertainment. Some of Joost’s partners include CBS (Entertainment, News and Sports, and classic library content), Showtime, Last.fm, Wallstrip, Moblogic; Viacom, including Atom, BET, CMT, Comedy Central, LOGO, MTV, The N, Nickelodeon, Spike and VH1 programming; television series and full-length feature films from Sony Pictures Television; and the Warner Bros. Television Group, which is partnering with Joost on three branded channels in the U.S.: The WB (featuring complete episodes of hit series, including “Friends,” and original digital productions from TheWB.com), Classic WB TV (boasting full-length episodes of classic favorites from the Warner Bros. collection of series) and WB Sci Fi Fix (featuring complete episodes of the Studio’s most popular science fiction titles).
Since January 1, 2008, the number of videos available on Joost has nearly doubled, while the total number of hours has increased by more than 50 percent. Significantly, Joost’s music catalog now includes more than 18,000 music videos from major record labels as well as a number of independent labels.
In addition to the new social tools, Joost has implemented a new programming guide which organizes content into three main categories: Shows, Music and Film. Shows are divided into nine main genres – action and sports; animation; comedy; culture and style; drama, docs and reality TV; news and gossip; science fiction and horror; sexy; and tech and gaming – and then further classified into subgenres, like anime in the case of animation, or retro TV in the case of comedy. Music and film titles are classified by genre, such as pop for music or drama for films.
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