Tuesday, October 14, 2008

JOOST GOES WEB . . . TOO LITTLE TOO LATE

The news of Joost's move from desktop application to Flash-based web offering isn't causing all that much of a stir because, well . . . they're comin' to the party at the stroke of midnight - and we all know what happened to Sleeping Beauty!

As one of the early beta users of their desktop product, I quickly gave up using it because of the sheer number of issues I was having with it - from logging in to accessing and watching videos. And as a member of their database, I would have expected to get periodic emails keeping me updated about all the goings on there. The one saving grace is that my user name and password still work on the site -- but it's not really gonna do me much good 'cause I don't plan to visit Joost all that often going forward. Is the content really all that different than what we've been consuming from other sites (YouTube, Hulu, etc.) for over a year now? If it is, it sure wasn't obvious to me.

So my prediction is that Joost won't last through next year - or if it does it won't even come close to being profitable. If only I had $45 million to play with, I could pretty much guarantee that I'd be able to build a profitable business. Open checkbook anyone?!

Friday, October 10, 2008

THE END OF WEB 2.0 -- JUST ANOTHER PART OF THE ROLLER COASTER RIDE

So by now the news of Sequoia Capital ringing the alarm bell about the severity of market conditions and what that means for start-ups has spread like wildfire around the blogosphereand the follow-up commentary from both bloggers and readers is coming on fast and furious -- can't you just hear the keystrokes?!

As someone who was fortunate (or unfortunate!) enough to be part of the roller coaster ride that was the original Internet bubble, I can tell you that this definitely feels like deja vu all over again -- except that now there seems to be even more fear and loathing of what's to come, if for no other reason than because of the proliferation of blogs, forums and other digital media that helps spread the doomsday message. We're living in an age of the virtual water cooler except unlike the first go-around, where most of the chatter was happening between and among people that actually knew each other -- whether by email or at the fabled Internet World conference (remember those good 'ol days?!). Nowadays, our one-to-many missives are going global, with comments coming in from as far away as Israel and Russia.

We truly are a global village - so let's all try to act like it and agree to work together to ride out this economic maelstrom by practicing sound business principles, being smart with our money and building the next generation (dare we say Web 3.0?!) of killer digital products and services.

The good news is that for every dip in the roller coaster ride, there's always an end which has a few people feeling sick to their stomach but most begging to go around again. I know I'm on board -- are you?!