Babelgum vs. Joost Comparison
Babelgum is a new Internet TV provider set to compete with Joost. Babelgum just opened up to a wide beta so the question is: How does it stack up against the incumbent? Both use Peer-2-Peer (P2) technology, like Skype and BitTorrent, to deliver content and both companies were founded by people that have made a lot of money on the Internet. Babelgum is bankrolled by Silvio Scaglia, champion of fiber-to-the-home in Italy. It’s pretty easy to see why he’s interested driving broadband usage. Meanwhile Joost is founded by P2P wonderboys Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, of Skype and KaZaA fame. Both companies have people experienced with delivering a product with mass appeal.
The Download and Client Install
Both offerings require the user to download some client software. Currently Babelgum lacks a Mac offering but it’s rumored that one will be delivered soon. Neither application supports Linux at this time. It’s basically useless to talk about the download size of the application since they’re both insignificant when compared to the amount of bandwidth used to download broadcast-quality streaming video. Both installations were quite slick. My only complaint is that Joost doesn’t automatically update to the latest version. I’ll also give Joost kudos for including a nice summary of their EULA. For both the registration process is contained within the client. Joost’s process is a bit more involved since it wants quite a bit of demographic information for targeted advertising.
Content
Babelgum users are presented with 9 different channels, or groups, of content including News, Lifestyle, Music, Documentaries and Trends. In addition there’s a “Babel Picks” channel that has selections from across the other channels. The content itself is quite limited. Most of the nine channels have 6-8 programs none of which seemed particularly intriguing to me. Most content seems a bit dated. I know Babelgum is actively looking for new partners but I can’t help but feel that they should have had a bit more of an offering before opening up their service. It’s said that Babelgum is looking for Long Tail viewers, but frankly I think that YouTube and other services may have that market cornered.
Joost apparently can’t go two weeks without announcing another high profile content partner. Their opening segment shows clips from Cartoon Network, National Geographic, MTV, music videos from independent labels like Fueled by Ramen. The list is quite large and includes Transformers which I’m sure excites CrunchGear. There certainly is a lot to look at.
The User Experience
Two words can describe my initial impression of Babelgum. Minimalist and Dark. Babelgum aims to be as unintrusive as possible with tiny simplified controls. Unfortunately not all the controls are labeled well when you venture into the advanced functionality. This is definitely “at your desktop” TV. Operating the tiny controls from across the room would be next to impossible. Babelgum lets you create custom “smart channels” using tags applied to the videos. Unfortunately this was a little less than intuitive. After search for a particular tag you have to click on it in the tag cloud in order to make it active. After that click the “Create Smart Channel” icon and you’re good to go. There is also a “video” section of the application but I’m unable to determine its true function other than to perhaps create personal video playlists. The interface isn’t going to wow you, but it gets the job done.
Joost likes bright colors and a featureful interface that can sometimes be a bit overwhelming with everything on the screen. I get the feeling that Joost is catering to the MySpace generation so the interface is right in line with that. The search capability of Joost is quite prominent and makes it easy to find new content or save the search as a new channel in your “My Channels” view. It’s also a lot easier to move through the content in Joost at the expense of a cluttered screen. You can get a text preview of upcoming programs on the channel, or check summaries of what’s on completely different channels without stopping the current show. The best feature may be that you can effectively jump ahead or backwards in the program you’re currently watching. Babelgum gives the ability to pause but no way to skip ahead or replay a missed scene which is really obnoxious to long-time users of TiVo. The Channel Guide is easy to navigate via genres, staff picks, popular shows, and “New on Joost”. Many channels feature additional information and a “preview show” for their content. Once you find a chennel you like you can also add it to your personalized “My Channels” list. All these advanced features of Joost aren’t without a price. There are advertisements, quite a few of them. Largely they’re unobtrusive pop-ups in the corners of the screen or brief advertisement screens in between programs. You’ll likely get sick of seeing the same ones over and over again. Once you get familiar with all the widgets and controls the Joost interface is smooth and polished with lots of little animated effects that enhance the TV watching experience.
Social Features and Extensibility
You’re not alone on the Internet but with Babelgum you feel that way. As far as I can tell zero social features have been implemented in latest entrant into the Internet TV space. You can easily rate video content but you can’t see anyone else’s ratings. In addition I couldn’t figure out how to add my own tags to the videos or share my smart channels. I hope they hurry up and push these features out because Joost is light years ahead. With Joost there’s the “My Joost” section that lets you chat with other people watching the same channel, instant message others, send a link to the show you’re watching, view ratings and blog about the show (with screenshots) all from within Joost. Eventually users will be able to create their own widgets as well. It’s not an open platform but they clearly understand the importance of a community.
Technical Features
Both Joost and Babelgum deliver pretty good video quality since they require a broadband connection. It may just be the generally higher production quality but videos on Joost tend to look better. Joost also requires a much beefier computer than Babelgum. Keeping Joost open in windowed (non-full screen) mode caused some stuttering with multiple applications open. Stability may be an issue as well. I was able to crash Joost repeatedly when browsing through menus with video playing. Both applications are in beta so there’s still a lot of testing to be done but Babelgum was rock solid throughout. Bandwidth may be a concern though. Many internet service providers aren’t too thrilled about streaming video so be advised.
Overall
If either content or communication is king then Joost has Babelgum beat for now. Babelgum is still a good product but it needs to become remarkably more social or add some “must have” content quickly. My bet is on the former. Even so these two services are getting a lot of attention and competition is good so give them both a try.
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