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Why We're Discontinuing the Joost Software Application
Yesterday, we sent an email to people who had used the Joost desktop software application. This email let them know that we are going to discontinue the software as of tomorrow morning.
There was a lot of speculation about why we were doing this and what this means, which led to a lot of confusion. We'd like to clear that up.
A brief history
The industry was much different when we set out to deliver professional video online in 2006. Bandwidth was very expensive. Content partners were relatively new to distributing their copyrighted material online. With a proprietary, downloadable software running on a P2P network, we were able to distribute professionally-produced content in an efficient, high-quality and protected manner.
We learned a lot after we launched this software, and decided to move to an in-browser experience.
In October, we launched our new website, www.joost.com, which lets you watch videos in your web browser and also brings a lot of the social features we'd had in our software closer to the viewing. We've always wanted to bring video and social interaction together, and the new site makes it even easier.
It was always our intention to discontinue the Joost software application.
Why did we do this? Because by discontinuing support for the client, we're able to ensure that everyone who wants to use Joost has a common experience. Focusing on the website has also allowed us to make a lot of improvements quickly:
Adding Facebook Connect integration so you can log in and share videos with your Facebook friends more easily
Introducing an embeddable player, so you can now share videos on your blog
Improving our electronic programming guide to make it even easier for you to find videos
And last but not least, introducing an iPhone application
And what's even better is that we're getting a lot of good, positive feedback.
What about P2P technology?
We have a significant amount of intellectual capital built up around P2P technology - but the reality is that most people don't care how their video is delivered to them as long as it's delivered to them reliably. When we find the right application for our P2P technology, we'll reintroduce it as a new service.
Thank you to all the Joost fans out there - the software application, website and iPhone app. Your feedback helps us make Joost better.
Posted by Kerry Vance on Dec 18, 08 | Permalink
