Joost raises $45 million in funding
Joost raises $45 million in funding
BRUCE MEYERSON
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Joost, an Internet-based TV service being launched by the creators of Skype and Kazaa, said Thursday it has raised $45 million from five investors including CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc. and an influential Hong Kong telecommunications executive.
Index Ventures, a European venture capital firm, and Sequoia Capital were the lead contributors to the investment. The fifth participant is Li Ka-shing, chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. and Cheung Kong Holdings, who invested in Joost through his charitable foundation, the Li Ka Shing Foundation.
Joost, which recently expanded a trial of its TV service to more users, transmits video with peer-to-peer technology, the signature approach that co-founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom used to launch the hugely popular Skype calling and Kazaa music-sharing services.
P2P relies on the shared computing power and bandwidth of its users to transmit data, rather than serving it all directly to each user from a central data center. With P2P, the more people using the system, the better quality the transmission will be, making quick adoption especially crucial to Joost.
Skype proved so successful that it was purchased by eBay Inc. for $2.6 billion, but Kazaa drew the legal ire of the music industry as users downloaded music without paying for it. A settlement last year will lead to a redesign of Kazaa, which is no longer owned by Friis and Zennstrom.
No copyright troubles are envisioned with Joost, which has gone the mainstream route by signing deals with major content providers, including its new investors. Viacom, for example, has agreed to let Joost show content from MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount and Comedy Central. Overall, Joost says it now has 150 channels of video.
Now that a sizable number of consumers have high-speed Internet access, online video viewing has taken off, as exemplified by the explosive popularity of YouTube, acquired by Google Inc. in November for $1.76 billion.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!
Related posts
Joost
(pronounced ‘juiced’) is a system for distributing TV shows and other forms of video over the Web using peer-to-peer TV technology, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (founders of Skype and Kazaa).
Joost began development in 2006. Working under the code name “The Venice Project,” Zennström and Friis have assembled teams of some 150 software developers in about a half-dozen cities around the world, including New York, London, Leiden and Toulouse. Joost’s CTO is Dirk-Willem van Gulik.[1]
The teams are currently in negotiations with FOX networks. It has signed up with Warner Music, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Productions (Indianapolis 500, IndyCar Series) and production company Endemol for the beta.[2] In February 2007, Viacom entered into a deal with the company to distribute content from its media properties, including MTV Networks, BET and film studio Paramount Pictures.
Company representatives have gone on record as saying the name should be pronounced as “juiced”, unlike the Dutch first name Joost, which is pronounced ‘Yohst.’
Technology
P2PTV overlay network serving three video streams.
P2PTV overlay network serving three video streams.
The program is based on P2PTV technology and is expected to deliver (relaying) near-TV resolution images. It turns a PC into an instant on-demand TV without any need for additional set top box. News updates, discussion forums, show ratings, and multi-user chat sessions (often linked to the active stream/channel) are made possible through the use of semi-transparent widget overlays.
The current version of the software is based on XULRunner and the audio management re-uses the ZAP Media Kit. The peer to peer layer comes from the Joltid company, which also provided the peer to peer layer of Skype. The video playback utilizes the CoreCodec, CoreAVC H.264 video decoder.
[edit] Financing
[edit] Joost development
As co-owners of Skype, Friis and Zennström received part of a $2.6 billion cash payment when eBay acquired Skype in 2005, which easily covered the development and marketing cost of their Joost venture. Just a week after launching the service, the founders announces that they have raised additional $45 million. Sequoia Capital, which backed Yahoo, Google and YouTube; Index Ventures, an early investor in Skype; Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong tycoon; and CBS, the US media group, have all taken “small minority” stakes in the start-up. Viacom is also understood to be among the partners, although the nature of its backing has not been disclosed.
[edit] Content distribution
As opposed to streaming technology in which all clients get the feed from the server, P2P TV technology differs in the sense that the servers serve only a handful of clients; each of the clients in turn propagate the stream to more downstream clients and so on. This moves the distribution costs from the channel owner to the user.
The Joost service will be ad-supported, with advertising analogous to that shown on traditional TV, according to CEO Fredrik de Wahl.[4]
[edit] Availability
Currently, the software is in an open beta stage; an invite is required to become a user. However, a new stage of the beta was announced on May 1st, and all users were given unlimited invitations.[5] Linux is not yet supported.
[edit] Programming Content
Viacom Inc. and Joost entered into a content provider agreement for the Joost platform on February 20, 2007. Under the agreement divisions of Viacom (including MTV Networks, BET Networks and Paramount Pictures) will license their “television and theatrical programing” to Joost.[6] This came shortly after Viacom requested 100,000 potentially infringing videos to be removed from YouTube.com, which showed a preference by Viacom for the Joost platform over YouTube.[7]
Joost also currently has licensing agreements in place with Ministry of Sound TV, Warner Music, the production company Endemol[8], Diversion Media[9], CBS[10] and CenterStaging’s rehearsals.com[11]. On May 1, 2007, Joost signed a deal to distribute NHL content, including full game replays of the Stanley Cup Finals, and vintage games.[12]
[edit] Channels
The Joost applications includes three special channels What’s Popular, Search, and Joost Suggests which offers services, like searching the channel list or gathering statistics about channels, that can be used to find a channel that can be viewed. Apart from that, it also lists a number of channels serving various genres of content.[13]
[edit] History
[edit] Timeline
* 2006, October: The Venice Project announced.
* 2006, December: Invitation-only beta testing began.
* 2007, January 16: Officially announce real name, “Joost”[14]
* 2007, February 17: Macintosh beta testing began
* 2007, February 20: Viacom announces that it will be a “key partner” in television programming for Joost.
* 2007, March 7: CHUM Television announces its partnership with Joost to provide content, the majority of which to come from MuchMusic.
* 2007, April 5: Joost opens the newest beta version 0.9.1 to many new users, however bugs prevail and problems with playback now exist.
* 2007, April 10: Joost releases beta 0.9.2 to remove a hard-coded security certificate. Previous versions no longer run.
* 2007, April 24: Joost releases beta 0.9.4
* 2007, May 1: Joost releases beta 0.10.1 , granting existing beta users the ability to invite up to 999 peers to try Joost.
* 2007, May 9: Joost releases beta 0.10.2
[edit] See also
* Internet television
* Democracy Player
* TVUPlayer
* Babelgum
* Zattoo
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!
Related posts
Bebo
Bebo is a social networking website, designed to allow friends to communicate in various ways. It has developed into an online community where users can post pictures, write blogs and send messages to one another, and is similar in format to MySpace, Xanga, and Yahoo! 360. The site was founded in January 2005 by Michael Birch and his wife, Xochi Birch. It was given a major relaunch in July of that year.
Bebo is the 89th most popular English-language website (at 2 May 2007) according to Alexa Internet. In the United States, Bebo was the fastest growing social networking site in June 2006 according to Hitwise, Inc. Bebo also announced on March 17, 2007 that it was the most popular website in the Republic of Ireland. Bebo as a keyword was also listed as the number one term most representative of search trends on Google in 2006.
Features
Once a user has registered an account, they edit and maintain their own profile page using online forms. The top of a user’s profile contains information about the user, which would typically include their name, a customizable profile image (often a photo of the user), and some miscellaneous information under various headings. Although default headings are provided, many users create their own to reflect their own interests.
Profiles include; a whiteboard, in which other users can draw pictures with a variety of colors using a system called ffArt, a comment section where other users can leave a message, and a list of the user’s friends. These are all publicly viewable, unless the user selects the “Private Profile” option, which limits access to the profile to friends specifically added by the user.
Profiles are also capable of including quizzes, slide-shows of images uploaded by the user, polls for their friends to vote in, photo albums, blogs with a comments section for others’ responses, a list of bands (see below) of which the profile-holder is a “groupie” and a “Flash Box”; which plays video, often linked from popular Internet site YouTube, or uploaded directly to Bebo’s servers. Members can also add “widgets” which are more graphically rich components provided by an external site — typically something like a slide-show of the member’s photos with some transition effect applied.
Bebo Bands
On 11 July 2006, “Bebo Bands” was launched On this section of the site, bands or solo artists are able to create a profile showcasing their music. Along with undiscovered talents, it has a section called “New Music Only on Bebo” linking to established artist pages including Paris Hilton, Matt Willis, Orson, Coldplay, Kylie Minogue, The Kooks, Lily Allen, and others.
The band pages include; a band member list which is similar to the friends list on a normal profile, a list of “groupies” (fans who have added the band as though it were a friend), an area for tour dates, a blog, and a list of songs which have been uploaded for playing through Bebo’s media player, or to be added to other user’s playlists. These songs can be grouped by the band into albums, along with cover-art. All band members can edit the content of the band profile.
Although the Bebo Band section is intended for use by musical groups, the facility is also used by many to form clubs or societies, or as unofficial fan pages for established bands.
Controversy
Concern has been raised about potential risks to children from pedophiles accessing personal information contained in profiles. This can, however, be prevented by making one’s profile private. A survey of two million profiles by Bigulo.com found that one in three publicly accessible profiles belonged to children under the age of eighteen.
In March 2006 Norfolk County Council is believed to have become the first LEA in the United Kingdom to order all schools in its authority to block the website from school computers due to its being used for “unsavoury activities”.
In March 2006 in Derry, Bebo was used to organise a sectarian fight under the guise of a cross community football match.
Source: Wikipedia
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!
Related posts
YAHOO and MSN join the Google Sitemaps program
YAHOO and MSN Search have announced that they will support the popular format for XML-Sitemaps which was invented by Google in 2005.
In an encouraging act of collaboration, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft announced tonight that they will all begin using the same Sitemaps protocol to index sites around the web. The system instructs web masters on how to install an XML file on their servers that all three engines can use to track updates to pages. This should make it easier to get your pages indexed in a simple and standardized way. People who use Google Sitemaps don’t need to change anything, those maps will now be indexed by Yahoo and Microsoft.
Source: TechCrunch
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!
Related posts
Free Link from EzineBlog.org - Increase your Google Pagerank
Want to increase your Google Page Rank and Technorati Authority? Well, good news friends, Everyday Weekender is a Google Page Rank 5 site and I’ve decided to give away free linkbacks to your site.
A linkback from this site, will help increase your Google page rank, your Technorati rank, your search engine rankings and it will drive some traffic your way too.
You’ll get a permanent link in a blog post and get a link to your site on the cool blogs page.
How to Increase Your Page Rank
All you have to do is write a review about this blog, link back to this article and link to this blog’s home page with any of the following anchor text:
- Cottage
- Food
- Weekend
- Fun
You are also free to link to anyone of my posts as part of your review.
Here’s an example of what I’m looking for:
Everyday Weekender is a fun site that talks about everything from cottage life to food. If you review his blog, he’ll link to it and help increase your page rank!
Ohh, and he’ll also teach you a thing or two about cooking a juicy steak.
Once you post the review, let me know and I’ll give you a Page Rank 5 linkback. Send me the URL and the anchor text you want for your home page.
Happy posting!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!
Related posts
Google Trends
Google Hot Trends
What are people searching for on Google today?
http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends/atom/hourly,2007-08
2008-08-28T15:51:47Z
2008-08-28T15:51:47Z
]]>
S:2008-08-28T15:51:47Z
2008-08-28T15:51:47Z
1
Vancouver Island]]>
VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) — A strong earthquake struck at sea Thursday off Canada's Pacific coast west of Vancouver Island, but was too small to generate a …]]>
2
ClimateMaster in Oklahoma City, … “Companies like ClimateMaster are ramping up production. …]]>
3
Vancouver Island]]>
VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) — A strong earthquake struck at sea Thursday off Canada's Pacific coast west of Vancouver Island, but was too small to generate a …]]>
4
Tropical Storm Hannah has formed east of the Bahamas.]]>
Tropical Storm Hannah has formed in the Atlantic. The depression formed early Thursday East of the Bahamas …]]>
5
Stanley Kurtz a forum to air … Some more background on Stanley Kurtz: Stanley Kurtz Is Tied To Bill …]]>
6
I have a dream' speech]]>
I have a dream" speech, delivered 45 years ago today from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. …]]>
7
Leeward Islands in the Atlantic. …]]>
8
Hannah is waiting patiently in the wings to be officially declared a tropical storm. Gustav had reached hurricane status, …]]>
9
Orion Cooker for speedy grilling]]>
Orion Cooker, a good addition to the outdoor chef, is seen in this Sunday, Aug. 3, 2008 photo. The stainless steel cooker makes smoking large pieces of …]]>
10
Jamaica should generally welcome low-cost airlines]]>
Air Jamaica Study does not … The MIT study quantified the benefit of Air Jamaica to Jamaica between 1995 …]]>
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!
Related posts
Vick ‘em t-shirts… too soon?
In a valient effort to poke a little fun at the Michael Vick scandal and irk rival Texas A&M, students at Texas Tech created a t-shirt displaying a football player hanging a dog with the slogan “Vick ‘Em” across the front.
Read more
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!
Related posts
Press Release- Ezineblog.org: Free Bloghosting site to rival Wordpress, Blogger, Blogspot
For_Immediate_Release:
United States of America (Press Release) August 8, 2007 — Wordpress seems to have taken the blogging market by storm. Google has had their hand in the game for a while. There are hundreds of pay blog hosting sites, and only a handful of powerful free ones. Ezineblog.org revolutionizes the market with their proven techniques for getting their hosted blogs to the top of the search engines.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!
Related posts
Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana Yahoo Google Searches
Searches for Miley Cyrus and her television character Hannah Montana are in on Yahoo!’s pay-per-search engine overture.com for the month of September. The Disney character received 542,674 searches, while “Miley Cyrus” got 203,233 searches for the month. The most searched for song was ‘Best Of Both Worlds‘ followed by ‘If We Were A Movie‘. The 13-year-old received a disturbing number of stalker-ish searches, with interest in her phone number and home address littered in the top queries. Read on for a complete list of searches and misspellings.
Searches done in September 2006
Count Search Term
542674 hannah montana *
203233 miley cyrus
14247 hannah lyric montana
10691 hannah montana picture
7627 miley cyrus picture
4707 miley-cyrus.com
3817 hannahmontana.com
3597 mileycyrus
3539 hannah m
3504 hannah montana music video
3491 hannah montana soundtrack
3367 cd hannah montana
3051 best both hannah lyric montana world
3050 concert hannah montana
2720 hannah montana song
2648 mileycyrus.com
2412 hannah montana music
2360 costume hannah montana
2311 miley cyrus hannah montana
2303 game hannah montana
2197 biography miley cyrus
2147 miley cyrus lyric
2025 disney channel hannah montana
1943 hannah montana wig
1822 concert hannah montana ticket
1768 miley cyrus number phone
1744 cheetah girls hannah montana concert
1345 costume halloween hannah montana
1307 hannah if lyric montana movie we were
1223 episode hannah montana
1222 best both hannah montana world
1210 hannah lyric montana song
1170 miley cyrus pic
1153 hannah montana video
1129 miley cyrus photo
1085 disney hannah montana
1066 hannah montana life so suite thats
1048 hannah montana cast
1011 hannah mo
1011 miley cyrus hannah montana picture
983 episode hannah montana picture
887 clothes hannah montana
782 baby miley cyrus picture
724 kid costume hannah montana
702 miley cyrus layout
667 hannah montana listen song
649 hannah montana photo
629 hannah montana pic
591 miley cyrus music
590 miley cyrus myspace
581 hannah montana lyric other side
577 address miley cyrus e mail
575 montana hannah layout
565 montana hannah lyric said who
565 miley c
550 concert miley cyrus
548 hannah montana com
543 cheetah girls hannah montana
541 miley cyrus wallpaper
529 hannah montana wallpaper
525 miley cyrus online
491 miley cyrus official site web
477 hannah montana music video watch
462 hannah montana poster
457 hannah montana movie if we were
455 miley cyrus email
428 hannah montana in concert
424 hannah montana this life lyric
417 miley cyrus naked
416 miley cyrus gallery
412 miley cyrus hannah lyric
410 hannah montana show
399 cyrus miley nude
396 dvd hannah montana
383 hannah montana .com
378 cheetah girls hannah montana in concert
376 miley cyrus com
371 hannah montana jake ryan
365 hannah montana site web
362 miley cyrus real
358 miley cyrus song
354 earles jason hannah montana
348 miley cyrus fan club
338 concert hannah montana tour
336 billy ray miley cyrus
336 bio biography miley cyrus
336 bio miley cyrus
334 cheetah girls hannah montana ticket
331 miley cyrus jonas nick
330 hannah montana this life
330 hannah montana tour
327 cd hannah montana music
327 hannah montana who said
326 hannah montana stuff
323 miley cyrus web site
319 hannah montana episode guide
316 hannah montana icon
309 disney channel.com hannah montana
307 miley cyrus old
305 fan club hannah montana
303 miley cyrus .com
303 ashley tisdale miley cyrus
302 miley cyrus email address
302 best of both worlds by lyric hannah montana
300 cd miley cyrus
299 autograph miley cyrus
298 book hannah montana
293 disney channel game hannah montana
288 audition hannah montana
286 miley cyrus emilyosment
281 by hannah if lyric montana movie we were
273 biography cyrus destiny miley
272 icon miley cyrus
271 miley cyrus poster
267 hannah montana other side
265 disney channel miley cyrus hannah montana
264 download hannah montana song
264 hannah montana ringtone
263 clothing hannah montana
263 hannah montana imdb
260 who said by hannah montana lyrics
255 disneychannel.com hannah montana
250 character costume hannah montana
250 address miley cyrus
250 dress up game hannah montana
248 hannah montana show tv
245 clothes miley cyrus
244 disneys hannah montana
239 cd date hannah montana release
239 episode hannah montana watch
238 hannah montana youtube
236 billy ray cyrus miley cyrus
235 miley cyrus fan site
230 hannah montana shirt t
226 hannah montana life so suite that
225 doll hannah montana
222 family miley cyrus
213 download hannah montana
212 montana hannah life this video
212 miley cyrus lyric montana
210 if we were by hannah montana movie
209 hannah montana quiz
209 miley cyrus video
206 other side by hannah montana lyrics
205 concert miley cyrus hannah montana ticket
205 hannah montana myspace
205 concert miley cyrus hannah montana ticket
204 hannah montana layout myspace
204 hannah montana script
203 by hannah montana life lyric this
200 miley cyrus official site
194 miley cyrus layout myspace
193 concert miley cyrus ticket
193 album hannah montana
191 hannah miley
191 miley cyrus tribute
186 miley cyrus myspace real
183 hannah montana miley
182 mileyfans.net
182 fan hannah montana site
181 miley cyrus from i learned lyric
180 miley cyrus mom
180 miley cyrus number phone real
172 miley cyrus music video
169 cheetah girls hannah montana concert ticket
168 hannah montana naked
164 cyrus hot miley pic
164 miley cyrus ticket
163 where does miley cyrus does live
163 miley cyrus fan
163 miley cyrus fansite
154 hannahmontana.net
145 birthday miley cyrus
145 miley cyrus doll
143 miley cyrus family photo
142 miley cyrus interview
140 home address miley cyrus
140 boyfriend miley cyrus
139 contact miley cyrus
138 whats miley cyrus phone number phone
137 miley cyrus e mail
137 meet miley cyrus
131 miley cyrus info
129 miley cyrus as hannah montana
125 miley cyrus imdb
123 background miley cyrus
122 miley cyrus screen name
121 myspace.com/mileycyrus
119 miley cyrus magazine
118 miley cyrus image
116 miley cyrus official
115 miley cyrus destiny
106 miley cyrus fact
103 miley cyrus number
103 miley cyrus number real
102 miley cyrus song lyrics
100 age miley cyrus
99 miley cyrus house picture
96 miley cyrus house
96 miley cyrus site
95 chat miley cyrus
90 miley cyrus cell number phone
90 cheetah girls miley cyrus tour tickets
90 miley cyrus official fan club
90 miley cyrus hope
90 miley cyrus screensaver
89 miley cyrus died
89 miley cyrus tour
46 mileycyrus .com
29 mileycyrus com Misspelled Searches done in September 2006
Count Search Term
3639 hanna montana
1998 hana montana
1242 miley cryus
1164 mylie cyrus
873 miley cirus
723 mily cyrus
586 hannah monta
475 miley sirus
438 hannah mont
433 miley syrus
394 miley cyurs
335 miely cyrus
319 miley sirius
306 hanamontana
296 miley cyris
181 miley cyprus
180 mile cyrus
168 myley cyrus
167 miley cires
166 miley cyus
161 miley crus
102 hannha montana
97 mylee cyrus
78 hannamontana
76 mileycirus
73 hanah montana
59 hannah mntana
54 hannahmonta
51 milycyrus
48 mileycryus
46 mley cyrus
45 hannah ontana
43 miley cyru
38 iley cyrus
34 miley cyrua
32 hannah motana
30 miley curus
*includes “hannah montanna“
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!
Related posts
Most Searched Google Words for SEO
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!