Om reported today that Joost is getting ready to abandon its client and replace it with a web-based product that’s powered by a P2P plug-in. This step certainly makes sense for Joost. The service has been struggling to remain relevant ever since its launch, and the idea of web-based solution has been floating around for what seems like forever. But Joost in a browser is also hardly revolutionary. In fact, there have been plenty of ...

Om broke the news today that Joost is abandoning its full-on client for a browser plug-in, falling in line with the way of the web (aka Hulu). We’ve had a chance to poke around the password-protected site, and here’s some of what we saw. The plug-in is a 18.6 MB download, and it installed fine on my Mac. The site seems especially driven by a social experience. One of my problems with Joost all along ...

Filmmaker Michael Moore’s new film, Slacker Uprising, is skipping theaters and will be released online as a free download. The film follows Moore during his 62-city tour during the 2004 election that was aimed at firing up the youth vote. Though he cites Radiohead as inspiration for this free web release, Moore is no stranger when it comes to his movies showing up online. Last year, Moore cried foul when his movie Sicko leaked online ...

Written by Liane Cassavoy. Amazon’s Video on Demand is the latest service that will attempt to make you turn off your TV and turn on your PC when you want to be entertained. But Amazon is jumping into an increasingly crowded market, so how does its service fare compared to similar offerings from Hulu, iTunes and Netflix? I gave all four a spin under similar conditions to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. EASE OF USE ...

Probably one of the most important benchmarks for online video, in my opinion, was the study conducted by TNS and the Conference Board last year that found 16 percent of American Internet households watch TV broadcasts online. That seemed pretty impressive at the time, especially given that it pre-dated the existence of Hulu along with widespread promotion of other network’s streaming offerings. It signaled that there was a real audience for premium entertainment on the ...

IKEA, the Swedish home furnishings company, is rolling out its new web series Easy to Assemble, which features a cavalcade of stars. Valkommen To IKEA (www.easytoassembl...) - The best bloopers are here The series is created by and stars Illeana Douglas (To Die For), and will feature appearances by Jeff Goldblum, Tom Arnold, Ed Begley Jr. and Justine Bateman (who must be killing time before her own web series kicks off production). Each episode will ...

Are you ready for some (online) football?! A web video party? Then head on over to NBCSports.com to check out the NFL’s first live-streaming game of the season, as the defending Super Bowl champs, the New York Giants, take on the Washington Redskins. The game begins at 7 p.m. ET, and will feature four different camera angles to choose from, picture-in-picture functionality, and real-time commentary. Interestingly, the game requires Flash, not Silverlight, which NBC was ...

Web video distribution and analytics firm TubeMogul has launched a “Marketplace” of web video shows or, as TubeMogul likes to call it, a “dating site” to connect advertisers with video producers. The service lets advertisers search through TubeMogul’s catalog of video producers using such criteria as web show category (entertainment, technology, vlogs etc.), minimum views and demographic reach. Each web show has a profile page that includes a synopsis of the program, sample video, viewership ...

Amazon has extended its paid video service to streaming, Macs, and compatible Sony BRAVIA devices and televisions. It previously only made movies and TV shows available for download to PCs or on TiVos. The moves were all expected and forecast, but they are no less important for Amazon to have a viable online entertainment portal. Amazon bridges current offerings from iTunes, Hulu, and Netflix, though it’s important to note that, like iTunes, none of its ...

I have a soft spot in my heart for technology demos, especially when they’re put together by extremely enterprising nerds. In this Roomba hacking demo, a Japanese man uses Bluetooth technology to control his Roomba with his Wii Balance Board. The actual demonstration isn’t extremely impressive, but YouTube user longjie0723’s enthusiastic hosting warrants giving him his own series on G4. Or, at the very least, a wacky Japanese game show. And Steve Bryant reviews the ...

Comcast-owned video directory/portal Fancast has rolled out its own video download store, competing with the likes of Amazon Unbox, CinemaNow and Blockbuster. At first, this may seem ho-hum, but it fits with Comcast’s goal of turning Fancast into the last programming guide you’ll ever need. Fancast launched in January as part of Comcast’s “Project Infinity,” which wants to bring every piece of content to the set-top box. The site partnered with the likes of Hulu ...

OK, Joss Whedon superfans — time to replace your MP3 bootlegs with the official Dr. Horrible soundtrack, now available via iTunes. With studio-quality production value and no sound effects, it’s a fantastic chance to catch all the lyrics you might have missed the first time — “But her tears will dry when I hand her the keys to her new shiny Australia” is a gem from Brand New Day. And it also gives all those ...

LisaNova has been around so long that it can be easy to take her for granted, but her ability to throw herself into a character should never be overlooked. John McCain may or may not be Sarah Palin’s Bitch — but the Alaskan governor is certainly LisaNova’s, thanks to her ruthless talent for parody. (Warning: video contains NSFW language.) And since the end of Ze Frank’s daily series, there’s been something missing in online video. ...

Hurricane Gustav pushed the Republican National Convention off schedule, but the event is underway in full force today. To help all you McCainiacs and Palinites, here are all the places you can catch all the action through the magic of online video. Ustream is the official streaming partner for the RNC, and has five camera feeds covering the event. (The player had autoplay, so it’s embedded after the jump.) You can also check out videos ...

It pays to have big media backers. Case in point: Hulu, which will not only be offering season premieres of hit TV shows from FOX and NBC, but will be debuting a number of shows online before they appear on television. Over the next seven weeks Hulu will kick off the fall TV season with shows like Prison Break, Bones, House, Heroes, The Office and 30 Rock. Additionally, in a bid to generate some online ...

Homer Simpson once remarked that watching baseball without beer was really boring. That’s probably because he wasn’t watching the games online (d’oh!). We’ve written before about the success that Major League Baseball has had this year with its web video program, but BusinessWeek pulls the curtain back and provides a few more details. There’s a team of 60 people at the Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) operation who watch games all day and create ...

Written by Liane Cassavoy. I recently swapped my old Series 2 TiVo for an HD-capable DVR from Verizon FiOS. While I love the fact that I can record high-def programming, I miss my trusty, user-friendly TiVo. Here are a few things that Verizon — and all of the cable companies that also rent DVRs to their customers — could learn from TiVo. Use clear menu labels, and don’t be afraid to add a few more: ...

Web video is starting to mirror traditional TV, like it or not. Case in point: the distribution strategy and release schedule of LG15: The Resistance. EQAL, the production studio behind the show, will release new episodes just once a week, starting Sat., Sept. 20. Hmm, that sure feels a lot like how the broadcast networks dole out programming, doesn’t it? But it makes sense. As EQAL President Greg Goodfried explained, the daily web model can ...

One of the problems with Comcast’s new 250 GB bandwidth cap is that, as Om points out on GigaOM, it’s metered without a meter. Comcast doesn’t provide you with a central tally of all your data use. The company instead suggests its customers install bandwidth metering software on their machines and then add up the numbers. Its FAQ reads: “Customers using multiple PCs should just be aware that they will need to measure and combine ...

The thing that strikes you about meeting Tom Green is how…polite he is. The same guy who walked around interviewing people with a piece of poo on a microphone apologized to us (repeatedly) for being late to our 9:30 a.m. tour of his studio and offered to make us coffee. From his coffeemaker. Which is in his kitchen. Which is in his house. Which is where we were standing. Tom Green rocketed to fame in ...