TVSquad

What Joost is doing for television over the internet, Veoh wants to do for internet video... over the internet. Let me rephrase that. You know how Joost takes internet video out of the web browser and puts it into a standalone full-screen application with easy to navigate controls? Yeah, that's what Veoh wants to do.

But while Joost's strategy has been to partner with companies like Paramount, CBS, and Viacom to provide content, VeohTV, which launches in beta this week, lets you see pretty much any video on the web in a standalone full screen application.
The idea is that a web browser isn't really the right tool for watching videos, whether they be from YouTube, CNN, or ABC.com. Which is all well and good, but have you tried watching YouTube videos full screen? They tend to be a bit grainy/blurry at normal size, when you blow them up, they look awful. One cool feature for anyone with a slow internet connection, or a concern that the video you want today might be gone tomorrow, VeohTV will let you "record" videos to your hard drive to watch later.

Anyway, I'm still left wondering whether people really do want an application besides the browser for navigating video. These days most folks have their browser open most of the day, and I'd venture to guess that most online video is watched as a quick distraction when you should be doing something else.

The value of a full screen video player like Joost or VeohTV comes when you hook your computer up to your television set and have some time to sit down and watch video for a longer time. And at that point, I'm not sure I want to watch a bunch of 1 and 2 minute videos of people walking into walls. On the other hand, if Veoh can do a good job of showing full length TV episodes from sites like ABC and NBC's websites, I'll be all over VeohTV.

[via Business 2.0]