Joost drops P2P, steps to Flash for movies and TV

Fraught by competition from YouTube and Hulu, video start-up Joost is abandoning its P2P-enabled Windows and Mac client software in favor of a strictly Flash-based Web site for showing movies and TV.

Online video portal Joost has announced that, starting tomorrow, its Windows and Macintosh software clients will stop working. Users will instead need to go to the company's Flash-based Web site in order to access Joost's catalog of movies, TV shows, and music videos.

Joost was established by Skype's two co-founders. Upon its launch into private beta early last year, the video start-up's client software let users chat in real-time and customize the viewing experience with mini-applications while watching TV shows from CBS, Comedy Central, and CNN online.

But Joost decided in September of this year to start developing a new browser plug-in, incorporating technology from the P2P-enabled client software. Then in October, Joost followed in the footsteps of competitors such as YouTube and Hulu by opening its own Flash-enabled video site.

Evidently, Joost's recently launched iPhone client software will continue to work past Friday.