last100 reports that Joost, a hot Internet TV startup from the founders of Skype, may come out with a set-top-box (i.e. allowing Joost to connect to a TV) and a mobile version of their product. Right now Joost is a browser-based app. But it certainly makes sense to bring Joost more into the living room (set-top-box). Perhaps less so to make Joost a mobile app, which last100 editor Steve O’Hear is skeptical of.
In another post, last100 noted that Babelgum, a p2p online video service that competes with Joost, will open its Beta to the public. Existing testers can now invite others, and the company’s website is offering sign-ups on a limited first come first served basis, each day. Steve has some excellent comments on Babelgum, saying that it seems a lot further behind in the development cycle than Joost. He thinks that Babelgum has a long way to go to match Joost’s volume of content, however last100 has also reported that Babelgum may be embracing more of a niche and open content strategy.
Also check out last100’s posts on the SlingBox and thoughts on a possible Wii Media Center. last100 also covered the iPhone release date and the start of its advertising campaign.
AltSearchEngines
Read/WriteWeb’s other network blog AltSearchEngines (newly launched this week) has been stirring things up with a “Great Debate”. This is another excellent blog innovation from AltSearchEngines editor Charles Knight. The topic of the Great Debate was Continuous Search Engines and Personalization, and the debaters were Mark Zeman of Searchbots, Morgan Snyder of Allth.at, and Kalem Fletcher of Swamii. You can see the entire debate in the comments section of the post. Who won? I’m not brave enough to call it!
Also featuring on ASE this week is an overview of the Health Search Engines vertical market. The conclusion was that WebMD stacks up the best, both for doctors and patients.
Finally, AltSearchEngines has a follow-up post to the June edition of the Top 100 Alt Search Engines. There were 26 new Alts, including Ms. Freckles replacing Ms. Dewey (sniff!).
Check out these and other excellent niche stories on last100 and AltSearchEngines, our two new R/WW Network blogs.
