Joost's blog

A Note About Today's Changes

Joost — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:46:49 UT

Today we’ve decided to make some changes at Joost. In these tough economic times, it’s been increasingly challenging to operate as an independent, ad-supported online video platform. In order to position ourselves well for the future, we began investigating additional lines of revenue for Joost.

After much analysis, we have decided to change our focus and to start providing white label online video platforms for media companies and distributors. We have built a solid technology platform that there is demand for in the marketplace, and look forward to this new chapter for our company. At the same time, we’ll continue to operate Joost.com and its associated video applications.

Unfortunately, as a part of this change, we will say goodbye to many of our colleagues and friends. This is obviously disappointing and sad – it’s never easy saying goodbye to coworkers, especially when people have poured so much of their time, talent, effort and emotion into a company. We appreciate the contribution that all of our employees have given to Joost, and wish them well in the future.

Thank you for all of your support.

Remembering Michael Jackson: 1958 - 2009

Joost — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:29:49 UT

Like the rest of the world, we were shocked and saddened by Michael Jackson's sudden passing yesterday.

The King of Pop transcended music, becoming a cultural icon of the type that the world might never see again. He single-handedly revolutionized the music video and the music video industry. Thriller, Black or White and Remember the Time featured intricate story lines and - unsurprisingly - elaborate dance routines that are entertaining in their own right - with or without the soundtrack.

Well after the stream of news and tributes in his honor has slowed to a steady trickle, his legacy will live on.

Do You Love Cartoons?

Joost — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:32:47 UT

There's something about old school cartoons. Maybe they take you back to your childhood, and you can remember sitting on the floor, watching cartoons while snacking on milk and cookies.If you were lucky, you got double-stuffed, chocolate covered Oreos.

Maybe you were too young or not born, and you missed the cartoons of the '80s. Action figures of your animated friends He-Man and She-Ra never made it into your toy chest.

Or maybe, and most tragically, you weren't allowed to watch cartoons. Instead, you were forced to do things like play outside, finish your homework or practice a sport or an instrument.

Now you can self-diagnose and fit yourself into one of these categories. Or you can take our Retro Cartoon Quiz and put yourself in a category based on your results. In addition to Prince Adam and Princess Adora, there are the Transformers, G.I. Joe and more.

Good luck...and if you don't like your results the first time, try again!

A Note about the iPhone OS Update

Joost — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:48:13 UT

Tomorrow brings with it the much-awaited iPhone 3.0 OS update. This software update includes a lot of great new features, but we need to modify the Joost iPhone app to make it work on this new software.

To get a little more technical, some of the APIs we used have changed significantly, so we have to rework a great deal of the application logic to make the Joost app work on 0S 3.0.

We're working hard to finish the OS 3.0-compatible version and will submit it to Apple very soon - and hope that it will be approved quickly. We'll let you when the new version is available (or if you want to continue watching Joost on you iPhone or iPod Touch, don't download the 3.0 software update).

In the meantime, we released a version of Joost customized for the Sony PlayStation 3 today - check it out - and some other side projects - at Joost Labs.

It’s Time to Subscribe

Joost — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:47:26 UT

You might have noticed a new button hanging out on Joost.com – the Subscribe to Channel button. And maybe you’ve wondered – what does that mean? What will happen if I click this button?

Quite simply, if you click this button – and you’re signed up for Joost – then we’ll send you an email when there are new videos in the channel. Right now, we’re sending these emails twice a week – and we only send them to you if there are new videos in the channel. We include information about new videos in all of your subscribed channels in one email – even if you subscribe to 50 channels.

This week, if you’ve subscribed to some of these channels, you would be among the first to find out about these new shows:

Showtime: the season premiere of Weeds – is Nancy pregnant?
The Colbert Report: clips from Stephen Colbert’s Iraq trip
TV Guide Celebrity Interviews: Mark Paul Gosselaar talking about a Saved by the Bell reunion

Some channels add new videos every day, while some add them weekly, monthly, or every couple of months. So if you have a favorite channel, it pays to subscribe – especially since it’s free.

Let us know what you think at [url=mailto:feedback@joost.com]feedback@joost.com[/url] – and don’t forget to manage your subscriptions and email preferences to make sure that if you’ve subscribed to a channel, you get the email updates!

R.I.P. David Carradine

Joost — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:27:22 UT

Sadly, David Carradine passed away yesterday in his hotel in Bangkok.

As a TV actor, he was best known for his work on the 1970s TV show Kung Fu as David Chang Caine. Kung Fu is interesting to watch today - a retro look at a Chinese-American orphan raised in a Shaolin monastery in China to be a Shaolin master...who then travels to the "Old West," circa the late 1800s, of America.

It's Our New and Improved Embeddable Player!

Joost — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:11:13 UT

We just released a new version of our embeddable player which, in addition to a new user interface, has some new and improved technical features.

First of all, you can now choose to share your actions – like watching or favoriting a video – from Joost’s embeddable player to your JoostFeed on Joost.com. In other words, you can be logged into Joost all over the web.

Hand in hand with that, you can favorite or shout at a video directly in the embeddable player - try it out on this episode of Naruto Shippuden. You can also share the video you’re watching with your friends and followers through Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon and Delicious.

The top right corner of the embeddable player has a Goodies tab – and clicking that tab gives you just that – Goodies. There’s a search box which lets you search for any video on Joost – and start watching it, if you’d like. (You can also toggle between a grid-like view of the different videos that match your search and a more iTunes-y like format, formally known as coverflow.)

The Goodies tab also has links to find related videos, grab the link for the video so you can share it with your friends or grab the embed code so you can embed the video you’re watching on your own website or blog. You can also find more information about the particular video you’re watching and link back to your profile on Joost.com.

Last but not least, there’s an Easter egg available. We won’t tell you exactly what it is, but if you enjoy the live programming we have, and you have your own website or blog, you’ll probably like it.

What do you think? Tell us at [url=mailto:feedback@joost.com]feedback@joost.com[/url].

What Do Edie Falco, Sharon Stone and Glenn Close Have in Com

Joost — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:11:32 UT

There are a couple of right answers. Like, they're blonde. And they're actresses. But the other answer - which you might have guessed - is they're all on Joost right now.

Edie Falco has traveled up the Jersey Turnpike to be a New York City nurse in the new Showtime series Nurse Jackie. It's not on TV until June 8, but you can watch the premiere episode now, and find out why Jackie, who, as you might have guessed, is a nurse, is part sinner, part saint.

Sharon Stone and Glenn Close appear in two movies - Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction, respectively (as if we had to tell you that) - that are a part of our Paramount Pictures channel, our brand-new movie channel. In addition to these movies there's the Richard Gere - Edward Norton thriller Primal Fear, (as a complete aside, that title and Basic Instinct seem to go together, don't they; formerly-married couple Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson (who, incidentally, was initially cast in Sharon Stone's role in Basic Instinct) in Dead Again; and Keanu Reeves and the other guy (whatever happened to him in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. Not to mention Eddie Murphy Raw, which has at least one person in our office reminiscing about the time his mom found his Raw soundtrack.

Speaking of outrageous moments (and movies) - we have clips in from last night's MTV Movie Awards. If you haven't seen the now-famous (or infamous Bruno/Eminem moment, now's your chance!

DameElizabeth is All Over the Web

Joost — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:14:43 UT

Elizabeth Taylor is all the rage of the Internet these days - is she or is she not on Twitter? While it seems, frankly, unlikely, it also does kind of seem to be her.

But Elizabeth Taylor is more than just another celebrity on Twitter. Don't forget about her first voracious talent which made her such an icon in the first place - acting. Check out this collection of her movies to see where it all began.

Do Only Crazy Ladies Go On Reality TV, or Does Reality TV Ma

Joost — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:14:55 UT

Ah, a classic chicken-and-the-egg dilemma: are the women who go on reality TV programs, where they live under the cameras for 24 hours a day, crazy, or does being on camera 24 hours a day make them crazy?

At the very least, there's a certain amount of self-indulgence that propels someone, anyone, to be on a 24-hour-a-day reality TV show - and/or a certain desire to cash in on something. Just look at Jon & Kate Plus 8 or any of the Real Housewives. But is that crazy or opportunistic?

Regardless, we love these shows...and there's a special breed of character that we love the most: The Outrageous Woman. Presenting, in no particular order, our four favorites:

Tiffany Pollard, a.k.a. New York: A reality-TV show veteran, at this point, this year New York is going to work at various jobs, chosen by her adoring public. Or maybe they're not-so-adoring, since they send her to work at a nudist colony, a pig farm and as an exterminator.

Daisy De La Hoya: Like other bachelorettes before her, Daisy has parlayed "not getting the guy" - in this case, Rock of Love's Bret Michaels - into a televised search for her own beau.

Stephanie Pratt: Oh, Stephanie, where to begin...but with a brother like Spencer, a sister-in-law like Heidi, and a supporting cast that also loves the spotlight, can we really blame her?

The Girls of Charm School: If it's possible, each woman on this show is more outrageous than the next, with the singular exception of Ricki Lake - she is "all that."

Look Out! There Are Remakes and Spinoffs - and Remakes of Sp

Joost — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:05:03 UT

Next year's fall TV schedule came out this week, and remakes or spinoffs of lots of our favorites will be returning to the small screen next year. The question, of course, will be if they can be as good as the originals - and when you consider the originals, that is a very high bar to reach.

Last year, Beverly Hills 90210 was brought back to life. It's hard to believe it had only been gone for 8 years...and yet, how much things had changed since. There must be some inconsistencies in the timing - after all, you have to think we would've seen a little bit more of the kids who now roam the halls of West Beverly in the original. But we digress. Next year will be just like the old days, when Beverly Hills 90210 came on at 8 p.m. and Melrose Place followed it at 9.

It's unclear how this remake is going to work - we know that Ashlee Simpson Wentz is in it - but Michael and Sydney (dead or alive are also coming back. Will it just be the same housing complex with a different cast of characters - and if so, is Michael still living there?

Melrose Place will face some stiff competition from an NCIS spinoff, NCIS: Los Angeles. We already met the main characters for this one in the CSI.

Last but not least, and literally, last, because it won't premiere until mid-season, is the remake of V: The Series. Just like phonics, V stands for Visitors, and in this case the visitors are not-too-friendly aliens who have come to Earth. The original version of the show ended with a cliffhanger; perhaps the new series will pick up where that one left off?

A New Way to Watch Joost

Joost — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:37:19 UT

One of the exciting things about being an internet company is the ability to mash up with external services to make new features or products for users. Since early The Venice Project days, we have been keen to expose our APIs and to try out new integrations.

Sometimes, we work with other services and develop deep integrations, like with Facebook and Netlog, and our experimental personalized music video channel generator, Jigsaw, is powered by Last.fm.

Other times, external partners use our API for integrations, like our friends at Boxee, or to make something completely new, like Paul Yanez's Joost Media Player.

We are always excited when external companies and developers come up with new ways to add interactivity to content or to consume our massive library of content all over the world. We'll continue to extend the ability to integrate with Joost, and look forward to seeing more awesome mash ups over the summer. In the meantime, have a play with Paul's air application, or play around with our api and experimental stuff on Joost Labs.

We're eGuiding You All Over Joost

Joost — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:23:34 UT

eGuiders launched a couple of months ago, and we were immediately hooked. Yes...it's our job to watch online video. And we spend a lot of our time watching online video on Joost. But we also spend a lot of our time scouring the internet for videos that we want to bring onto Joost...and hey, when there's a place where industry pros - actors, directors, writers and more - sharing their favorite videos, we're going to pay attention.

We got the chance to meet Marc from the eGuiders team a couple of weeks ago, and after we'd spent a bunch of time talking about our favorite videos and shows, both on- and off-line, we asked if we could be eGuiders. And apparently we impressed him with our talk of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, because he said yes.

So check out our special Joost spotlight on eGuiders - it's a bunch of videos we like, all in one place, and a couple of them might surprise you.

Ciao Sicilia!

Joost — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:29:59 UT

I’m counting down the days until I depart for my family’s homeland of Sicily. Preparing for a trip overseas can be a little overwhelming, but to help with planning I’ve been watching travel videos on Joost which have given me a look at the customs, historic sites and the daily lives of Sicilians.

For my vacation, after a brief stop in Rome, I'll head to the island of Sicily. First stop is the beautiful city by the sea of Taormina, where you can take a train up along the still active volcano of Mt. Etna - let’s just hope it doesn’t erupt while I’m there! Heading to the north side of the island for a stop for a stop in the village of Castel di Tusa, I’ve found the perfect hotel - it's a museum, with each of the 13 rooms decorated by a different contemporary artist.

And another town I’ve discovered in my video research is Salemi, a little town on the western part of the island. It has a a random connection to my current home of New York City - the entire video collection of the former Kim’s Video (once a legendary spot in NYC) is now housed in the library of a 17th century former monastery.

So, where should you go on Joost if you're planning a trip this summer? TVF Docs Escape and Off the Fence channels have lots of great information and inspiration. Whether you're looking for an African Odyssey, A Shore Thing in Argentina or exotic Istanbul - or just want to take a little mental vacation to one of these destinations - you’ll be ready to say Andiamo!

Two for Tuesday

Joost — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:05:04 UT

We don't know if people in radio still do this, but Two for Tuesdays used to be a popular construct. Although there were some variations, usually the station would play two songs in a row from an artist, before moving onto the next artist.

Well, as we co-opt this gimmick for the internet, we're changing it a bit. Because we're not showing two videos from the same artist. Or even two videos that are slightly related, although I'm sure with some effort you could try to draw a very thin parallel.

Nope. We're just playing two new videos that set a new standard for awesome.

In no particular order, we present:

Up first, Matt & Kim's Lessons Learned. If you just listen to the catchy tune and don't watch the video, you'll miss out and want to start it over from the beginning. If you stop watching before it ends, you'll miss out and need to watch it again. If you watch it the whole way through like you're supposed to, you still might want to watch it over. And over.

Gael García Bernal is better known for his acting than his singing...and he really puts his best acting skills forward in Quiero Que Me Quieras, a Spanish-language cover of Cheap Trick's I Want You To Want Me. Like Lessons Learned, if you just listen to Quiero Que Me Quieras and don't watch it, you will be missing out.

So the songs do have something in common, after all.

Remember Mom(s) This Sunday!

Joost — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:07:21 UT

This Sunday is Mother's Day, so if you're still looking for the perfect gift, look no further. Here are some gifts from the heart that will show her just how much you care:

A makeover from her favorite salon (or facial, massage, manicure/pedicure...)
Give her a break from the kitchen and cook her a special Mother's Day brunch or dinner (featuring prosecco!)
You can never go wrong with a heartfelt card and a CD from a touching artist, like Michael Bublé or Faith Hill
Take on some extra household chores or help her update things around the house
Got a mom who loves technology? Teach her how to watch her favorite web shows right on her TV (Joost shows included!)
Still stuck? Find more great gift ideas here.

Don't worry, it's not all work and no play. Here are a few "gifts" just for you –

Check out our Mother's Day Music playlist – full of the hottest mamas that know how to have it all and have the videos to prove it – like Britney, Christina, Madonna, JLo and more
Get your eyeful of Hollywood's hottest Mother-Daughter combos
Watch some of the cutest animal moms as they take care of their even cuter babies

Whatever you decide to do, don't forget to call that special Mom, Grandmom, Aunt, Mommy-to-be or Step-Mom in your life on Sunday! Happy Mother's Day!

Feliz Cinco de Mayo

Joost — Tue, 05 May 2009 21:17:27 UT

Mexico has had a tough go of it lately, what with the swine flu H1N1 virus and the earthquake. So celebrating Mexican culture today for Cinco de Mayo seems particularly timely.

First, get the party started with some Mexican music. Like Thalia, Luis Miguel, RBD, Maná and (relative newcomer) Ximena Sariñana.

Then whip up some food and drink - like a margarita, chips and churros - or if that's not enough for you, prepare an entire feast.

Finally, it's not a fiesta without some dancing, and if you don't feel like doing the Mexican Hat Dance all night long, you can hit the dance floor with these moves, straight from music videos.

Go On, Go Where No Man Has Gone Before

Joost — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:53:14 UT

X-Men Origins: Wolverine may still be all the rage at the box office (and the video game aisle - just check out this trailer)...but there will be a battle for No. 1 at the box office this weekend, as Star Trek beams into theaters.

We love a little friendly competition, and there's nothing like a harmless trivia contest to get the competitive juices flowing. And since you can watch every episode from Star Trek: The Original Series (as well as some fun mashups and clips) on Joost, we decided to put the two together.

With the help of some Star Trek fans in the Joost community, we now present (drumroll please)...The Star Trek Quiz. You have all week to watch all of the episodes from The Original Series and try to score a perfect 10 out of 10. We didn't make it easy, so watch carefully!

What to Watch This Weekend

Joost — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:49:16 UT

It's that time again...another Friday, and once again, you're faced with the tough question: what should I watch online this weekend? Because, let's face it - even when you don't have to be in front of a computer, you just can't help turning it on.

Without further ado, three quick picks to keep you entertained this weekend, in between mint juleps.

Slam Dunk: Our newest anime series tracks the life of Sakuragi. Unlucky in love - rejected a record 50 times - he hopes to win the love of his life over with...basketball.
Space: The Final Frontier: The weekend's the time to explore your passions. Space travel, anyone?
Marvel: Oh yeah...there's a little movie coming out this weekend called X-Men Origns: Wolverine. For everything you need to know about the X-Men, check out this channel.

The Top 5 Naruto Smackdowns

Joost — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:53:45 UT

One of the best things about Naruto Shippuden is the fights. What else is a ninja to do? His job is to take down his opponents, and they don't fight with words.

We wanted to figure out what the best fight scenes were - in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, we'd be able to figure out who the best fighting ninja are. But we couldn't do that alone. So we asked our friends - the editors over at Naruto Shippuden Collector to give us their picks...and the results are in.

Presenting...the Ninja Knockdowns Joost Jockey - the five best fight scenes you'll find in the show. Check them out now, and don't forget - it's a Thursday, so that means there's a new Naruto Shippuden episode up now.

P.S. If you haven't noticed already, this seems like a good time to highlight our new "Subscribe to Channel" feature. On any channel page and below the video player, there's a new button which says, fittingly, Subscribe to Channel. When you subscribe to a channel we'll automatically notify you via email whenever a new video is added to that channel. Check it out and [url=mailto:feedback@joost.com]let us know what you think[/url].

Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do?

Joost — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:48:51 UT

If you live in the U.S., you've heard of Television for Women. It's more than a channel, it's a genre. We have our own mini version of the genre here at Joost - with the Wedding TV, Bridezillas and Engaged and Underaged channels.

But nobody ever talks about Television for Men. Maybe because we call it "sports".

There is, in fact, a healthy selection of programming that's just for men. And one new channel - Real Vice Cops Uncut - falls squarely in this genre.

Watching this show is almost like being a Real Vice Cop. You can picture yourself riding along in a van, about to make a bust. You feel the adrenaline pumping in your veins as you bust down the front door of a house and chase a deviant through his house...or maybe you're a part of the detail that guards the back door in the event the perp attempts (pity the fool) to escape.

Although, obviously, not every bust in real life leads to an arrest...every bust on Real Vice Cops Uncut does. And that is the moment of truth - literally. Will a suspect lie or tell the truth?

It's a non-stop adrenaline ride. Get on.

Happy Arbor Day

Joost — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:25:03 UT

It's certainly been a green week around here - first Earth Day came around and then, right in its shadow, the much-overshadowed Arbor Day.

In case you missed it, don't worry, you're not alone - we would have missed it too if it weren't for Charlie Brown. If you haven't planted your tree yet, check out the Peanuts Specials: It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown.

And just to wrap up the week on an extra-green note, here are some new documentaries and feature films about the environment:

The Human Footprint
Six Degrees Could Change the World
Blind Spot
And last but not least, The Green Chain starring Tricia Hefler from Battlestar Galactica

How Are We Doing?

Joost — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:04:01 UT

It’s been about six months since we launched the new Joost.com – so we thought this was an appropriate time to take a look at how we’re doing. And the news is good – we’ve seen a tremendous amount of growth, increasing our site traffic nearly five-fold since our launch. People are now watching a million hours of Joost video every month, and in March, there were more than 15 million video views.

But as seductive as statistics are, they don’t tell the whole story – or the most interesting one.

We have “committed” (in a nod to our engineers) an enormous number of changes to Joost in the past six months. We’ve spent a lot of time working on our content discovery tools, and while we’re not done yet, we’ve already improved our program listing; adding an A-Z list of all shows, music and film; enhanced our search functionality; and added a beta recommendation tool to help you find other shows that you might like. Which is good, because we’ve added a lot more content – from anime favorites like Naruto Shippuden to TV premieres like The United States of Tara – and outside of the U.S., we’ve added German, Dutch and Belgian-language programming for people in those countries.

Our technological innovations don’t stop there. We broadcast our first live in-browser event – President Obama’s Inauguration – in January, and had people around the world participating in a live chat during the course of the day. We’ve added an embeddable player, which lets you embed Joost videos on your blog, and integrated with Facebook and Netlog to help you share the videos that you like with your existing social networks. We’ve partnered with a large number of third-party sites, search engines and device enablers, including Boxee, so you can find what you want to watch, and watch it anywhere. And we launched our iPhone/iPod Touch application, and now more than 1.5 million of you watch Joost videos on your iPhones and iPods.

At any one time, there are a number of projects that our staff is working on, and these are some of the changes you can expect to see in the coming months.

We’re improving the quality of our video, to bring you more bit rate and dpi options. In the near future, we’ll have three streams that you can choose from – high quality, standard quality, and optimized quality.
We’re continuing to play with the design of our website. We make subtle changes every week or so, based on our user feedback – and sometimes the changes are more significant. It’s safe to say that in a year, our site will look radically different than it does today.
We’re pursuing an aggressive syndication strategy. While our focus is on the Joost experience on the computer, we’re working with a number of different partners to bring Joost to you via a number of different devices.
And, of course, we continue to add new content partners to our library. In Europe, we’ll add more native-language programming, and will introduce native-language versions of Joost in some countries.

That’s just a partial list, because we’re not close to being done yet, and nothing, not brain-eating aliens, not cats on skateboards, and not rumors and speculation, will keep us from continuing on our mission to bring video to you over the internet. In the afterglow of the hype of our early days, we’ve had our fair share of critics, but we’re encouraged every day by the amount of feedback emails, tweets, Facebook comments and more that we receive from our fans. The team here continues to work hard, every day, to make Joost a success, and we thank you for your continued support.

We Told You It Was Festival Season

Joost — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:53:43 UT

All the grime is barely off our bodies from Coachella and, as if they know we're feeling vulnerable and looking for another music festival outing, Lollapalooza announces their lineup. And although the festival has had its ups and downs over the years, this lineup is pretty impressive.

Want proof? Check out the bands who will be taking the stage in August: