Truly Twisted Marketing

I am literally drooling with anticipation over Joost.

"What's so special about it?" You might ask. "What the heck is it, anyway? A new energy drink?"

Even better. 

Joost is a functioning real-time social network. You can watch a show, rate it, share it and chat with friends using its IM platform. How cool is that?

The best part? It's free.

Out of the box users can participate in a community chat that will, in essence, allow  soccer fans from across the globe the opportunity to gather to watch the World Cup. It has the potential to be a truly killer application and really twist up television as we know it.

Here are a couple of screen shots of the interface.

The Joost platform was created by the same guys who created Skype and originally called the Venice Project. The premise behind Skype is the premise behind Joost - free. Did I mention, "it's free?" Free phone service with Skype via the internet and free television with Joost via the internet. 

But Joost is far from traditional television. It's a customizable interface so if you want to share the experience with only a few friends, you can. It's truly user built television.

Love it the idea? Want to test it out yourself? You can, well, sort of. You have to fill out an application. Then wait. You might have to wait quite a while because apparently they are receiving thousands of applications a day and it's still in beta. 

But my bet is it will be worth it.