Joost to kill desktop client, provide browser-based video player?

by Brad Linder Sep 5th 2008

Apparently a web browser really is the best place to watch online video. OK, that's probably not at all true. But thanks to YouTube, Hulu, and other Flash video based web sites, most users have gotten used to watching video without launching a separate application. So this week we saw Amazon de-emphasize the download feature of its online video store. Next up? It looks like Joost might end development of its standalone video player and launch a browser-based service instead.

The new Joost browser plugin will still reportedly rely on P2P technology to distribute video, thus lightening the bandwidth load for content providers. The video quality should also be higher than what you find on most YouTube-like video sites.

One of the things that made Joost different from every other online video platform when the service launched was the company's insistence on creating a standalone video browser. After all, web browsers are designed for navigating text and image-based web sites, not video. Joost was designed to be a bit more TV-like. But I can't say I'm surprised to hear that the company is moving back to the browser, because for many computer users, the web browser is the internet.

The image above does not show the new browser plugin. Nobody's seen that yet (except maybe the folks working on it). Rather it shows a Flash based mashup of a Joost-style interface for browsing existing online video sites.

Update: TechCrunch got some screenshots of the new service which is available at a password protected web site. Check one out after the break.

Tags: browser, flash, joost, online-video, p2p

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

BlueB said 8:10AM on 9-06-2008

Linux support this time!?

WolvenSpectre said 6:17PM on 9-07-2008

This will likely fix the multi platform supprot but I cannot see the browser based player having the same quality as the desktop client.

If they move away from it they should offer to sell or open source the players tech and interface to home theater PC makers. with a little additional developement and functionality it would make a great front end.

Dred242 said 7:45PM on 9-07-2008

I remember being very excited about Joost but after using it for several months I grew tired of it's slow interface. Also my PC performance would slow way down after only a few minutes of use. I can't wait to try the new web app.

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