• TechCrunch, Tuesday, September 23, 2008 11:32 AM

Hulu clearly sees video startup Joost as a competitor, and is out for blood. Last week, Joost ditched the desktop software approach and launched a new social network around its now Web-based video product. TechCrunch reports that Hulu today launched a series of new, similar features, including show recommendations, user discussion forums, better search and 17 new vertical channels from anime to fashion and beauty, food and leisure, home and garden, comedy, music, video games, etc.

The News Corp./NBC Universal joint venture says it now has nearly 900 TV and film titles from over 100 content providers. As TC's Michael Arrington says, "There's no way Hulu is going to let Joost get a foothold in the race for attention in online professionally produced video."

However, Arrington points out that the real battle, at least in terms of volume, is with Google's YouTube, which has nearly 50 times Hulu's 100 million-plus monthly video streams, according to Nielson Online.

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