Joost was due to be the next big thing, and created such a buzz in its infancy, was talked about positively all around the blogosphere and beyond.
Now, that seems to have all but ended, with the latest talk around the Internet being all negative, and even discussing the possibility of the company and service not being able to last until the end of the year.
The Trend For Knocking Joost
Mathew Ingram seems to have started the trend for knocking Joost, with an interesting post in the wake of the firing of the company’s chief technology officer Dirk-Willem van Gulik.
Gulik has now been hired by the BBC to directly work on their iPlayer, which recently racked up its millionth viewer despite reservations over the remaining inequality in the service. Joost’s loss is the BBC’s gain.
But whereas he was only asking questions of the direction the company is heading, and warning of its possible early demise, a number of other technology blogs and bloggers have been much more critical.
Andrew Baron of RocketBoom in particular seems to be revelling in the bad times Joost is seemingly having, but all of his points seem valid in the cold light of day.
The Facts
So let’s take a look at the facts. Well, the firing of a key employee at the company, and the manner in which it happened is certainly a bad sign, and something which the company is going to have to live with for a good long while.
Then there’s the lack of much new content on the service of late, with the recent addition of Star Trek: The Original Series being the only one which has made any sort of impact on news feeds in the past six months.
The main problem however is the fact that no-one I know uses Joost any more. I received an invite during the exclusive beta testing stage, and signed up, downloaded the software, and was good to go. And then nothing really took my fancy.
I used the service for a few weeks on and off, but due to a combination of crappy content, and it slowing down my PC quite dramatically, I ended up removing the whole thing, and I haven’t missed it one iota since.
Conclusions
There’s always the possibility that Joost could be turned around, and with a huge budget behind them, that’s got to be a priority. NewTeeVee have even been kind enough to list Five Ways To Save Joost.
I’m not sure whether the doom and gloom merchants will be proved right or not, and I expect the service to be around in some form or another for a bit beyond 2008, but the signs are there that not all is right in Joostland.
