Justin.tv gets new features

I’ve been following justin.tv for a while and today they got a new update to their layout. Call me a voyeur but I find it entertaining to be able to log in and see someone else doing absolutely nothing to help convince me that my boredom isn’t a unusual trait. I can’t say that I’m that pleased with the update, many of the features that would make the service truly great are still missing.

Anyway their added features are pretty poorly implemented and could be so much more if they thought about how to compress the crap. They have an updated directory that appears at the top of the channel displays all the users currently streaming but it takes up so much space that it scrolls off the screen. If they limited the directory to the top 10 and then expanded the list when you scrolled over it would be much better. Any implementation like a light box, a fish eye view or a scroll over that allows you to view the active channels without interrupting the feed you are viewing would be nice. They spent so much time allowing you to tip surf without leaving the page that they forgot about channel surfing.

This is sort of accomplished with the beta version of their new live video viewer but in my mind this is just them reinventing basic browser features. I guess it feels like a ripoff of the ABC player and the slowness of trying to find a show on there leaves me with bad feeling about the player going in this direction.

The new justin.tv archive also needs a lot of work. The new archive page has best of tips which seem to look like what the channel creator recommends you watch. If they were smart they would implement a full page calendar that had the top 3-5 tips for the day and the ability to view all the tips for the day. They could take it a level further and allow thumbnails to show up for users to find something that looks visually interesting instead of just reading tips and seeing how many people tipped them. The other major complaint I have is that if the channel isn’t live it doesn’t appear anywhere on the site. I know the site is all about live video but whats the purpose of the archive if you cant access it when the live video is down. A perfect example is Ron Paul’s channel. You cant access it unless he leaves it running 24×7 under the current system.

The current flash player still leaves a lot to be desired. There is no way to restart the stream when it pauses. In my opinion something is wrong with the design when I have to refresh the browser to view the main content. The archive feature is also kind of sparse. The tip system should be implemented into the archive player similar to how the comment function on viddler works. Its also very annoying when the stream repeats itself or works in slow motion because it never buffers itself enough. I haven’t experienced this a lot but it happens a lot on Sarah Meyers stream.

Some other features are still missing. The channel page needs a revamp to the schedule of the day. Why doesn’t the schedule allow you to go into the archive to see something that was supposed to have happened. The links to RSS feeds are there but aren’t active. I still have no idea what the number next to my username on the site is supposed to mean.