Full-screen Web videos

NEW YORK (AP)

Online video in small, fuzzy boxes is heading the way of rabbit ears.

Some highly anticipated Web sites aim to make the experience of watching video online more like watching television. These sites rely on software that enlarges the interface so it fills the computer screen — from edge to edge.

This new wave of applications is being led by Joost and includes VeohTV and Babelgum. Though all are in beta (testing) phases, the hype has been mounting, leading many to claim the next big advance in online video is imminent.

“The distribution problem is starting to get solved by many different people, but the experience of online video is still very poor,” says Veoh founder Dmitry Shapiro. “Companies like Veoh and Joost are trying to create a more TV-like experience for viewers.”

Of course, YouTube, which Google Inc. bought for $1.76 billion in November, is the site that blazed the online video path. Though YouTube offers the option of a full-screen mode, video typically is watched in a smaller box that can be embedded in other sites.

The new sites, all of which are ad-supported and transmit video with peer-to-peer technology, are seeking to move beyond YouTube by improving video quality, attracting professionally produced content and expanding the viewing experience — which is to say to be more like TV.

Babelgum’s slogan is: “TV experience, Internet substance.” Veoh touts: “VeohTV makes watching Internet as simple as watching television.” Joost simply says: “The new way of watching TV.”

All three work nearly the same way. You download the application from the respective Web site. When that’s finished, you have a desktop icon that launches the application. It then fills your screen with an on-demand-style choice of videos arranged in near-broadcast-quality channels.

Joost, founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom (the founders of the Internet telephone company Skype and the music-sharing service Kazaa) says it has created enough buzz to attract 1 million beta users.

Joost’s strategy has been to sign deals with major content providers, making copyright lawsuits unlikely. (YouTube, on the other hand, is being sued by Viacom Inc. for more than $1 billion.) It has inked deals with Viacom, CBS, CNN, the National Hockey League, Sony and others.

“The early stages of video content on the Internet was a lot of user-generated stuff, stuff like my grandmother and her cat,” says Joost Chief Executive Officer Mike Volpi. “What we’re trying to do is evolve that experience into something that the viewer doesn’t view just out of interest, but actually builds an affinity with that particular programming content.”

Mr. Volpi notes that users won’t watch long-format video “on a postage-stamp-size thing.” However, altering viewing habits to watch more than five-minute clips even on a full-screen application may be difficult.

A poll conducted last September by Associated Press and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL found that only one in five online video viewers has watched or downloaded a full-length movie or TV show.

James McQuivey, a TV and media technology analyst for Forrester Research, says he thinks people will grow more accustomed to long-form material as it becomes easier to download.

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