May 13, 2007
Multitasking while watching TV online
Louise Story ponders the future of online television for The New York Times and describes trying out Joost and Babelgum with her husband.
"Within a few minutes of logging on to Joost, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard and Kraft all zapped ads at us. Babelgum will not have ads until later in the year and is planning to make its ads skippable during the trial period.
As we watch the Guinness World Records TV channel on Joost, boredom creeps in. How long can you watch television these days without doing something else? My husband pulls up his favorite technology site alongside Joost... Soon, he pulls out his laptop, too, and turns on the regular television.
Time passes — and I cannot sit still. I reach for my BlackBerry to check e-mail. But wait. Joost and Babelgum have solutions for the multitasker generation. Joost enables chatting and viewing on the same screen. Babelgum plans to introduce a chat tool this summer.
... Our experience with Joost and Babelgum made us think that the services should add more televisionlike content to expand the range of people who might watch.
They also should probably stick to their strengths as television sites where consumers can multitask while watching. "
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