Tuesday, March 13, 2007

joost.com Can Web video work as a passive experience? Joost may find out, by emulating TV.

Video on the Web is a subject filled with contradictions. The Internet is a medium where users decide everything: We constantly choose, navigate, skim, scroll and read. Poynter's Eyetrack 2004 study even taught us that simple text is more important than pictures to the average online news reader. Meanwhile, watching TV requires the opposite -- leaning back and simply watching the pictures and the flow.

But video does provide engaging and thrilling experiences. And if you count minutes, most people still spend more time in front of their TV than their Web browser. So the big question is: What should video look like when presented on the Web? Should it take TV's lean-back-approach or the Web's click-to-choose approach?

Joost is the new Web video project from the same people who brought you Kazaa and Skype. Although it is still in beta, it's clear that Joost takes the TV approach. When you start Joost, something is immediately on. Shows are presented in their entirety and not in sections. Navigation borrows just as much from a TV-remote as from the Web. For example you don't close windows with the usual top-right corner X. Instead you press a standby symbol.

Joost.com Screenshot of Joost's channel navigation. (Click to enlarge.)

Presently there are only a dozen Joost "channels." Each includes anything from one to a dozen shows in the same series. Most programs are short entertaining pieces like Fifth Gear, World's Strongest Man, or music videos. There's very little news programming -- but more content will be added.

Joost.com Screenshot of Joost's program information display. (Click to enlarge.)

What do you think? Is Joost completely different from normal browsing? Does it make sense to present Web video this way, expecting Web users to lean back? How should video content, including news, be presented online? What can we expect from Web users in 2007? Is there a growing use of the computer as lean-back machine? Or will lean-back TV on the computer become a niche product? Please comment below.

I really want to hear your opinions. Therefore, the most interesting comment to this post wins a Joost Token, which provides access to the beta version of Joost. Make sure you include your e-mail address in your comment, if it's not already in your Poynter Online profile.

(Disclosure: I work for the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, which is taking part in the Joost beta test.)

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