Hulu Launches All Kinds Of Stuff To Keep You Defocused On Joost

There’s no way Hulu is going to let Joost get a foothold in the race for attention in online professionally produced video.

So what happens when Joost ditches the download, goes all browser and launches a social network around their content?

Hulu can do that. No problem.

Tonight, via a 1 am press release, Hulu launches: show recommendations, user discussion forums for programs and specific episodes, enhanced search and better queue management. They also launched seventeen topical channels, including Anime, Fashion and Beauty, Food and Leisure, Home and Garden, Comedy, Music, Video Games, etc. The company say they now have nearly 900 TV and film titles from over 100 content providers.

And while I still think Joost’s Hot/LOL/Puke/WOW/WTF call out feature is just awesome, Hulu has the Daily Show. So they win.

Of course, the real battle, at least with regard to pure volume, is with the unbeatable YouTube, which has nearly 50 times Hulu’s 100+ million monthly video streams according to Nielsen Online.

Click here to watch a recent video interview with Hulu CTO Eric Feng.