Jooce.com [Matri-6]

Jooce.com offers ‘power to the people’. The main idea behind Jooce is to provide space where ‘cyber nomads’ – ‘people who maintain a busy online life from multiple computers, none of which they necessarily own’ – may save, access and share their files, watch videos from YouTube, and chat with friends. Simply said, Jooce offers the internet users a web-based application that would act as their own private space in the internet.

Knowing that people who own a computer manages their files in the computer’s desktop, the developers of this website incorporates the features of a desktop in Jooce. Jooce is your ‘private online desktop with public file sharing capabilities’, a virtual state-of-the-art desktop that can be access through any computer (provided that the computer has an internet connection and a flash player, since Jooce runs on Flash Macromedia).

This picture presents the start-up look of Jooce application, i.e., when you go to www.jooce.com, this is what you are going to see. The design of the application is inviting because it looks cool and exciting. Also, it seems like it is fun to use. One good thing about Jooce is that your excitement would not diminish when you are asked to sign-up because Jooce only asks you to fill-up four textboxes, unlike other websites in which you are required to complete a lengthy sign-up form. You only need to decide on your username and password, and then enter your e-mail address.

Another good thing about Jooce is that the application is translated into many other languages, including the Filipino language as shown below.

Jooce invites its users to COMMUNICATE with other internet users, MOVE their files to their own Joocetop (Jooce Desktop), PLAY videos and music in it, and CUSTOMIZE it. These features are represented by the four boxes that are shown at the initial page of Jooce. These features are discussed and evaluated below.

Jooce: Communicate! Taking into consideration the obsession of most internet users in social networking and in chatting, Jooce allows its users to manage their instant messenger (IM) and social networking accounts in the Joocetop. Users may chat with other people who are using Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, or AIM.

They may import their contacts from their accounts in these IM networks. Joocers (Jooce users) may also share files with the persons who appear on their contacts list.

Matri-6: CAN’T communicate. We’ve tried to import our Yahoo! Messenger Contacts into our Jooce accounts so we may chat with our friends in Y!M. However, our contacts do not appear in our Jooce contacts list for days. The control panel keeps on displaying that it is still importing our contacts.

Jooce: Move! Knowing that not all cyber nomads may afford to buy a USB Flash Disk, Jooce provides a virtual storage for their files. Joocers may upload their files to their Joocetop from a local disk drive and also from the web. They may then access these files through other computers. Also, Joocers may share their files among the people in their contacts list.

Matri-6: CAN’T move. We’re very interested in this feature than in any other feature that Jooce offers. We were excited to upload our files into our Joocetop so we’ll have back-ups for the files in our USB Flash Disks (which at any time may fail to function properly due to viruses). Unfortunately, we were not able to upload any file to our Joocetop. Everytime we try to upload a file, Jooce displays a textbox which states that they are ‘not sure of what happened’, and that ‘the system seems to be having a nervous breakdown’. The irritating box looks like the one below.

Jooce: Play! Jooce allow its users to play videos, listen to music, view photos, and play games in their Joocetop. There’s an icon at the bottom of the screen which is designated for YouTube. Joocers may search and play YouTube videos right in their Joocetop.

Matri-6: WE’VE played! Finally, here’s a feature that worked well. We we’re able to play a YouTube video in our Joocetop. As you can see in the preceding picture, we’ve watched the “The Incredibles Trailer”. Joocers may also play the videos in full screen for greater pleasure.

Jooce: Customize! Since Jooce promises to provide a virtual desktop to its users, it allows Joocers to personalize their Joocetop. They may do so by changing their Joocetop wallpaper, and also by setting an avatar. The toolbox for setting the avatar is shown below.

Matri-6: CAN’T customize. Yet again, whenever we upload a picture that we would like to set as wallpaper or as avatar, the same textbox appear in the screen as shown below.

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Having read our website review for Jooce, you probably know that we are quite unsatisfied with this website. But then……

Jooce & Matri-6: You’re Invited!

Jooce offers internet users like us, many things. Even though we’ve encountered problems while using the site, we still invite you to try it on your own. We know that the intentions of Jooce are great and that we should still give it a chance to prove itself. Jooce is actually one of PC Mag USA’s Top 100 Undiscovered Websites of 2008, so you better spend some time to discover it. According to Alexa.com, Jooce ranks 74,949. For other traffic details about Jooce.com, please refer to the tables below.

The team behind Jooce.com should try to improve the application by addressing the common problems faced by its users. The website is founded on great intentions, and our group believes that these may be attained by the Jooce developers if only they would make the necessary alterations. Jooce addresses the problem of digital divide as it aids internet users who don’t have their own computers, and only uses computers in the cybercafés. Jooce also has business value as it encourages the use of Macromedia Flash. Also, Jooce invites cyber nomads to engage in more internet activities thus increasing the profits of cybercafés. Jooce could serve many purposes for the internet users if it would be revamped.