TV coming to a Laptop near you?

The future of online televisionYou won’t find videos of laughing babies, choreographed wedding routines, or epic karaoke performances on Joost. Unlike YouTube, this new online video site is not a hub for user-generated content, but rather a potential revolution in the way people watch network television. Formerly known by the code name The Venice Project, Joost is being launched by the same powerhouse dotcom entrepreneurs (Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom) also responsible for Kazaa and Skype, which naturally has created a lot of buzz for it.

Currently invitation-only with plans to open up to the public this summer, Joost brings good old regular TV to the Internet for viewing. Although it is similar to Slingbox in that the application enables you to watch TV on your computer, Joost is poised to be a hit in its ease of use: users simply download free software to “tune in”. A deal with Viacom is already in place, in which Joost will be airing MTV, MuchMusic,and Comedy Central programming, as well as Paramount movies. Real time programming from networks such as National Geographic, Lime, and international TV distributor JumpTV will also be accessible for Joost users. For networks that fear YouTube, Joost may be the answer.

Celebrity gossip juicy celebrity rumors Hollywood gossip blog from Perez Hilton

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the fact I got this from Mr. Perez Hilton’s site (forgive me my pop culture craving… sometimes it is a curse). 

Seeing as I relate everything to the world of kids: I don’t really see how this is going to engage them (they’re not going to be able to watch it from their class desktops, after all).  When they want to watch TV, they have a limited time frame in which they can use electronics.

If they make this easy to use for mobiles… I can foresee teen girls crouching near a toilet in the girls bathroom just to catch up on “Days of Our Lives” (or in my case “All My Children).  Maybe some Ellen instead of Spanish class?

Otherwise, what is Joost going to do for kids/tweens/teens?  The only special cases I can guess at are– on vacation with dad’s laptop, watching “Avatar” instead of exploring ancient ruins (I can TOTALLY see some of my old campers doing this).

NOW ADULTS?!  There is going to be an interesting drop in productivity, perhaps? 

Social Networking & Ads

Our kids may soon be supplementing their allowance with ads on their profiles and blogs. For a while now, anybody who has a Web page has been able to sign up for Google AdSense and make money on ads appearing on his/her page (lots of traffic certainly helps!). The new thing is bloggers and social-networking profile owners making money on ads in their pages. Here’s an early version of this trend-to-be: Italy-based social site Dada.net’s partnership with Google AdSense called Friend$, according to BigMouthMedia.com (part of a mostly UK-based digital marketing agency). That’s what you might call opt-in advertising on the social Web. Another approach: opt-out advertising. Ning.com, host and production-tool provider for homemade social sites, is free to people who allow it to sell ads against their social-networking sites; but if they pay $19.95 to Ning, they can either be ad-free or sell their own ads in their sites’ pages (see this in the San Jose Mercury News).

BlogSafety Community: Do-it-yourself SN ad sales …

Me THINKS this could be a trend?  Flip.com tapped into it for teen girls (successful approach too, in my opinion– why? I fell for it)… and now these sports are lookin’ to dive a bit more into it. hmmmmmm…