Joost relaunch is the *yawn* heard round the world

We talk on length at this blog about barriers to consumption, plug in installs, etc. According to this article on TechCrunch this AM; Joost will be re-launching sans the need for a browser plug in.

So now Joost competes directly with every single other site that uses Flash video. The really ridiculous situation that most video companies find themselves in is that as they standardize on Flash as the platform, they will all reach the same quality and the only differentiation becomes the user experience. If the world did not already have Hulu, and had Hulu's brand AND experience not become so powerful, then maybe Joost would have an opportunity to succeed. The reality is that users will increasingly need to understand why to use one service over another; and quality alone will not provide that win.

One good decision that Joost made is that they are going to make tiers of video quality so users have a compelling reason to take the Joost plug in. IMO, this strategy will yield great results for them; while many on the internet act as if "no one will install a plug in", etc. data shows otherwise. Given the right content and/or value add to the user, they will take on the payload of software to have a better experience. One of the failures of the original Joost strategy was that users did not understand why they had to download software because there was no low quality alternative (other than the web itself) or experience to drive the action.

I wish Joost the best but their market is crowded with the successes of Veoh and Hulu; both of whom have built businesses sans a high quality experience (aside from limited HD Galleries). The reality we face is that web users still don't perceive the Internet as a medium by which to attain HD (or near HD) content via. streaming. I personally don't think Joost alone will change this consumer belief.