The video service Joost has finally reached 1.0 beta. As one of the people who were in on the Joost for Friends alpha testing, I decided to download the latest client to see what was new in the latest version. So far my experience has been that the new 1.0 beta isn’t as stable as the 0.19 alpha I used to have installed.

That said, they introduced a new feature that I think is really cool. When you are watching a video in Joost you can click on a button (see screenshot below) that will copy a link to the video into the clipboard. You can then paste the link in an e-mail/blog/IM. When someone clicks on it, it will take them to Joost.com where the video can be launched into the Joost player. They have added a lot of content, and I decided that I would share some of my favorites here. Especially don’t miss the video of David Letterman interviewing Paris Hilton.

They have also added widgets. That’s right….widgets. I don’t know how I feel about this one. There is a widget for RSS feeds, to post video to a blog, and they even have a GoogleTalk/XMPP/Jabber instant message client widget. One of the more interesting widgets is a channel chat widget. You can chat with anyone else watching the same show that has the widget open too. I don’t think I need my RSS being delivered along with my video, but it might be interesting if you are watching on a home-theatre PC.

With more than 15,000 shows on tap and the service open for everyone, Joost is the spot for free video over the internet. Even with the bugs I’ve encountered, I would recommend that everyone check out what Joost is offering.

Joost Videos:
David Letterman interviewing Paris Hilton
Oscar the grouch makes Craig Ferguson an honorary citizen of Sesame Street
Transformers (old skool animated series)
G.I. Joe