A couple of days ago I got an invite to join the beta of the mega-buzzed Joost (thanks again Garett!). My first impression is that it’s pretty solid but not quite the coolest thing ever…yet.

My main problem with Joost right now is the content. That’s not to say it’s not good content, the few things I’ve spent the time to watch the whole way through (a surfing show, one on sharks, and one of video games) were actually quite good, but if this is going to be a TV-killer, they are going to need more standard fare.

I say this knowing full well that Joost just signed a huge deal with Viacom (which of course includes MTV, VH1, and Paramount Pictures) and is seemingly signing other new deals just about every week.

The program itself is pretty cool. I’m using the Mac version beta which just came out a few weeks ago, and it seems to work very well. The default way to view Joost is in full screen mode, but it has no problems scaling down to window size if you’d like. Clearly though the thought is on full screen as Joost has built in to it, several widgets not completely unlike Apple’s own OS X widgets which can be pinned to your screen while you are watching shows (the widgets all have transparent backgrounds so as not to be too obtrusive).

There’s a widget for the time, one for RSS feeds, one for instant messaging among others. I’ve been suing the IM one and connecting to Google Talk (via Jabber) and it works great…seemless IMing while watching TV.

The way to access various channels is pretty well done; moving your mouse into certain areas of the screen along the edges brings up a few different panels, the one to the left provides access to the channels menu and though using a mouse scroll wheel I found to be troublesome (as the channels either jump or go by too fast), it’s a clear and fast way to find what you want to watch. You can also use arrows to do a more traditional channel-up or channel-down change.

Eventually, with more content, I don’t think anything will be bigger than the ‘Search’ option on the bottom of the main panel (where ‘pause’ and ‘play’ along with volume controls also sit). Think about how great it would be on regular TV or on your DVR if you could easily search for something you want directly using a keyboard. I know TiVo’s search is pretty good, but it still relies on a relatively clunky letter selection method, this should be much better.

The load times seem to be very good for what is near broadcast-quality full screen video. Accessing shows usually only takes a few seconds (which you spend watching the colorful rods spin around) and I never notice too much lag or hiccups in any of the streaming.

Joost, right now in beta, is of course free but I believe it’s going to stay that way when it goes public (which, based on how solid the program is already, I would say will be some point this year). I’m not really sure how they plan on making money off of it, I would assume some kind of advertising structure is coming, but I haven’t really seen anything yet (again I’ve only been testing it out for a couple of days).

I still think it’s a bit too early to tell how Joost will do in the long run, but with more content from the likes of Viacom, it certainly looks to be a if not the major force in online video programming. While YouTube and the like are great for short videos and clips, Joost’ strength lies is creating a TV-like experience meshed with the computer experience. If I had say – a Mac Mini hooked up to a big screen TV, I could definitely see myself getting very into Joost.

Now for what you’ve all been really waiting for…a little competition. I have one more beta invite to hand out currently and will give it to whoever leaves what I consider to be the best comment on any of my new posts between now and Friday. This is of course totally at my discretion and I’m not looking for anything in particular…please don’t feel bad if you’re not the one chosen, hopefully I’ll get more invites soon. Be sure to check back as I’ll announce the winner in a post on Friday. Thanks for reading and good luck.