A cool search engine for podcasts – DoubleTwist by Charles Knight, Next Web (Apr 14)
DoubleTwist can be your new intermediary for delivering podcasts to your mobile device - almost from any manufacturer. Goodbye iTunes.
It has a search engine that even the non-ipod person can use - http://podcasts.doubletwist.com/ - and it recognizes CBC and TVO.
New technology brings us closer to our heritage architecture by Dave LeBlanc, Globe and Mail (Feb 29)
Here is the perfect way to spend a sunny afternoon - take a guided walking tour of historic parts of Toronto with author Michael Redhill on your iPod as the guide.
"Thankfully, the marriage of technology and heritage appreciation has arrived in MP3 form courtesy of Heritage Toronto, the Toronto Public Library and Michael Redhill, author of Consolation, the award-winning 2007 novel that deals, in large part, with 1850s Toronto. Released just two weeks ago, on offer is a free, downloadable podcast walking tour narrated by Mr Redhill."...
"With minimal walking between stops and the pleasure of Mr. Redhill speaking privately into your ear — sometimes offering insight into his creative process — the hour-long tour is a real joy. It's also a forum, at times, for him to vent about Toronto's abysmal record of heritage preservation and even offer solutions."
Written by Mr. Redhill with Heritage Toronto's Gary Miedema and Nancy Luno, the walk is available for download at: www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/ktr/onebook/audio/walking_tour.mp3
Making Podcasting Easier for the Listener to Access, Enjoy, and Utilize, ResourceShelf (Sept 28)
Probably the best way to find podcasts is through a specialized directory - such as Yahoo's Podcast Directory which is to be closed. Is podcast search in a sad state? Gary Price mentions some other directories and comments on what might make podcasts more accessible to people - among these being phonecasts - listening to the program over the phone (mobile / cell).
Audio podcasting itself is not close to a mainstream tool - "Why? A learning curve (what is a podcast? How do I find a podcast? How and where can I listen to a podcast, and the list goes on). That’s a lot of work/time for people."
Will phonecasting be more successful? Marshall Kirkpatrick described the simple use of phone numbers to get programs from NPR's new mobile site -- NPR Launches Nice Mobile Site Read/Write Web (Sept 25)
Podanza - the podcast search engine, Pandia (Sep 25)
Recommends Podanza - "Podanza is an American podcast search directory, with a pleasant Web 2.0 interface and a joyful color scheme."
Yahoo gags podcast service
MICHAEL LIEDTKE, Associated Press via Globe and Mail (Sep 27)
Pity - I just discovered it - but Yahoo is closing its service for finding podcasts. It was little used and Yahoo needs to cut costs.
"The podcast section will be silenced Oct. 31, according to a notice posted on Yahoo's website. It joins several other features that Yahoo has scrapped as it tries to snap out of a financial funk that has depressed its stock price and triggered a reshuffling of top management."
Looking for podcasts? Podanza is an excellent directory and search engine for podcasts. It claims to "aggregate audio and video podcasts from over 5,000 international producers including top radio, television, print and independent publishers." It's well organized, has an enticing list of popular podcasts that are educational and entertaining rather than juvenile and amateur. This is a good starting point for finding podcasts that will be worth your time.
Podanza.com is one of a family of web properties from FUSA Capital Corp. The others are Searchforvideo , newstowatch, and iheard radio directory.
Yahoo Podcasts Launches, WebTalkRadio (Oct 10, 2005) - this old announcement popped up in my Congoo Internet News - an alert from the twilight zone of podcasting. It is a reminder that Yahoo manages a podcast site with directory and listings of most popular and recently heard. Good for browsing on a rainy day.
News Podcasts: What Do You Listen To? by Amy Gahran, Poynteronline (Mar 22)
Gahran subscribes to more than 60 podcasts many of which are produced by news media. She lists several with the Onion Radio News being her favourite.
In Canada, CBC produces several news podcasts - see http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/. TV Ontario creates a podcast of the nightly The Agenda program.
The iPod widens its audience in school by Michael E. Ross, MSNBC (Feb 26)
The MP3 player is becoming accepted as a learning tool - teachers, students, and companies are creating content.
"More than 70 million iPods have been sold since they were introduced by Apple more than five years ago. Now, with the MP3 player's foothold in academia, universities and companies are quickly expanding the amount of study materials students can use with them."
Site for Listing Educational Podcasts, ResearchBuzz (Feb 18)
Ed-Cast.org - "a site devoted to listing podcasts related to higher education". Use the Show All button to see what is available.
"Beyond Music: Integrating Podcasting into Your Business" By Matt Chapuran, Freepint (Feb 14)
Reasons for creating podcasts for your busines and methods for doing it - includes equipment - links to other Freepint articles on podcasting.
Resources of the Week: For Your Listening Pleasure, Shirl Kennedy, Resourceshelf (Jan 4) -- podcast roundup.
Podcasting Adds to the Media Mix by Reid Goldsborough, LinkUp Digital (Jan 2007)
Primer on podcasting for people who want to tune in or produce their own podcasts.
"Podcasting is the recording and broadcasting of audio, typically verbal rather than musical, for playback. It is often done through a portable digital media player such as an iPod. The content can also be video or other multimedia files, and players can also be notebook or desktop personal computers."
Digg Adds Podcasts, VC Funding by Amy Gahran, Poynter Online (Dec 29)
"On Dec. 18, Podcasting News gave an overview of Digg's new features. The one which caught my attention is this: "Now you can Digg your favorite podcast series and individual podcast episodes. Not only can you see a list of the most popular podcasts by section, you can also dive into any individual podcasts to see the most Dugg individual episodes."" See Digg's Podcasting page.
What Podcasting Revolution? -- More people are downloading audio feeds, but few do it regularly, according to a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project -- by Catherine Holahan, Business Week Online (Nov 27)
Further to the PEW study into the downloading of podcasts -- how long will it be until podcasting is widely accepted and will become attractive to advertisers?
"McCrery [Mark McCrery, founder of PodTrac] believes that subscriptions will rise as more people ferret out high-quality podcasters. "We do see a lot of sampling," says McCrery. "But we also find that a high percentage of audience members tend to listen or watch the same podcast. There are some podcasts that are getting to be must-listen or must-watch."
""Podcasting is still in its infancy," says Pew's Madden. "It is unlikely that it is going to usurp traditional media. It is more likely that it will become one of the many different ways that we get content in an increasingly mobile environment.""
Most popular podcasts are produced by traditional media outlets - radio, television.
Searchforvideo.com Launches Updated Video Podcast Directory, Business Wire via Marketwatch (Sep 26)
"Searchforvideo.com organizes the most popular video podcasts into various categories including news, sports, comedy, technology, music, television and animation. Each category provides information about the video podcast publisher and one click access to subscribe to the video podcast or one click access to the video podcast publishers website."
New software can search podcasts AP (Sep 26) Pluggd Inc's HearHere software uses speech recognition and semantic analysis to help users find what they want in a podcast.
"Users just have to type in a keyword in the search box, and HearHere would display a map to indicate where in the podcast the content would likely match a request. It also displays the related words HearHere is using to make its matching decision."
Demo is available at http://www.pluggd.com/
Podcasting Pointers by John Nolt, Earthlink (Sep ) -- "basic needs for creating and maintaining a podcast ". Recommends using Odeo.
Microsoft Zune Debuts - CNet has a slide show featuring the new Microsoft iPod contender called Zune.
Podango to Create Podcast Channels by Michael Arrington, TechCrunch (Aug 29)
Coming soon -- Podango aims to create topical channels that will bring together best podcasts into one - just like a radio channel.
"The goal is to combine multiple podcasts, which may only be publishing weekly, into a 3-5 shows per day channel with a single RSS feed. Just like old-style television and radio stations."
Podcasting Made Even Easier by Linda L. Briggs, Campus Technology (June 21, 2006 ) - software recommendations for making podcasts.
NewsGator Announces Podcasts for Yahoo! Messenger, Econtent (Aug 4)
"NewsGator Technologies, Inc., an RSS platform company, has announced a new RSS plug-in for the Yahoo! Messenger with Voice real-time communications suite. NewsGator for Yahoo! Messenger with Voice allows users to access audio and video podcasts as well as other content from around the web through an IM interface."
Podcast.com offers Canadian podcast showcase Globe and Mail (July 20)
Podcast.com, a Boston-based company, has collected podcasts done by Canadians. "This showcase serves to accentuate and highlight the work of Canadian audio and video podcasters who had already created one of the first countrywide grassroots communities around podcasting." Site is http://canada.podcast.com/. CBC Radio podcasts are part of this collection.
Technophilia: Find great podcasts by Wendy Boswell, Lifehacker (July 10)
Cleverly written article on finding best and most interesting podcasts on the web.
Source: Find Great Podcasts, SearchEngineWatch blog
IHT Lets You Roll Your Own Podcast. Or Not., ResearchBuzz (Jul 12)
"The International Herald Tribune has started a service that allows you to select the stories you want to hear, and listen to or download them." Register for this at http://audionews.iht.com - it's very simple but you might only be able to get one story per podcast.
SearchforVideo.com to Launch Video Podcast Directory; Video Search Engine Simplifies Finding and Downloading Video Podcasts Business Wire via MarketWatch (July 11)
"... SearchforVideo.com leverages both software intelligence and human editors to identify popular and entertaining videos. As the site aggregates freely available video links from over 10,000 public sources it contains millions of clips across a wide spectrum of genres and topics."
Public radio podcast directory -- 700 public radio podcasts are listed here, including three (only three!) from CBC: Metro Morning and Quirks and Quarks and Radio 3 for pop/rock music.
More favourite CBC Radio shows move onto podcast, CBC (May 3) -- "CBC has launched 22 radio programs on podcast as part of a major expansion of podcasting by the public broadcaster." Get the list at http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/. Unfortunately Eleanor Wachtel's Writers and Company is not on the list.
Forrester: Few Have Ever Heard a Podcast by Zachary Rodgers, Clickz (Apr 6)
Podcasting may have been in the news as a new word in 2005 (or was that 2004?), but hardly anyone knows what it is and fewer use it.
"The growth of podcasting has so far fallen short of its great expectations, with only one percent of connected North Americans using them on a regular basis according to a new Forrester Research report. More dismal for the nascent medium, about 73 percent of people say they've never heard of podcasting and don't care to learn more about it."
But for those who do use it, they do in order to pick up content from the radio for listening to later.
Podcasting 101 for K–12 Librarians, by Esther Kreider, Computers in Libraries (Apr 2006) -- Advocates that librarians produce podcasts to meet training needs -- "Podcasting supports efforts to differentiate instruction in the library in accordance with No Child Left Behind requirements. The podcast is a viable alternative for delivering research content or lessons to students who need remedial or extended support. While auditory learners particularly benefit when podcasts are incorporated into the teaching model, librarians can help all students and staff find ways to creatively use podcasting."
Has instructions on how to create a podcast.
Podscope vs. Podzinger: A Podcast Search Engine Cage Match?, Search Engine Journal (Mar 21) -- Maybe Podscope was the first search engine to support searching audio and video files for spoken words rather than Podzinger as recently claimed.
New Search Engine Helps Locate Podcasts, Newsfactor Magazine (Mar 20) -- More from Podzinger, the podcast search engine.
"Podzinger, owned by Cambridge's legendary BBN Technologies, plans today to launch a new search engine that uses speech-recognition technology."
Podcast: Will Audible.com Survive the Podcasting Onslaught?, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Wharton (Mar 15) Foy Sperring, senior vice president of Audible.com says that "Audible has been in Podcasting for more than 10 years...we are the granddaddies of this space." Interview by Knowledge@Wharton's editor-in-chief Mukul Pandya with Foy Sperring is available in an audio file.
Audio, Video News & Podcast Search Added to Rocketnews.com - Market Wire via Marketwatch (Mar 16)
Rocketnews has added audio/podcast and video search to its choices for searching news. Top stories are shown on each of the topical home pages. This makes it quite easy to pick out headlines for technology, arts and literature, health etc.
"The video and podcast content accessible on Rocketnews is aggregated from authoritative news outlets such as CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, Reuters, and the BBC, along with thousands of online audio news sources and podcasts. Visitors to the Rocketnews portal can now search for news, blog, audio, video and podcast content. The Company has also created a simple taxonomy that gives users the ability to narrow their searches to content from business, technology, health, sports and entertainment sources. Rocketinfo will continue to aggressively grow its audio, video and podcast databases."
Search Engine Optimization for Podcasts, by Grant Crowell, SearchDay (Mar 8) -- "Panelists on this session [at the Search Engines Strategies Conference in December 2005] focused on how best to prepare and optimize podcasts for search engines."
"MP3s, Podcasts and all that" By Nick Luft, Freepint (March 1) - deals with what is a podcast, but more importantly, what kind of content you can get. Makes a person want to go out and get an iPod.
Public radio uneasy with podcasting, By Frank Barnako, MarketWatch (Feb 24) - Local stations of NPR in the United States are worried that the NPR Podcast Directory will make it too easy for listeners to pick up programs directly, bypassing the local station.
This an other aspects of Internet broadcasting are being discussed at the 2006 Public Broadcasting New Media Conference in Seattle.
Podcasting: Behind the Hype - Could podcasting revolutionize the music industry?, Narasu Rebbapragada, PC World (Feb 17) -- Podcasting is very much in the early adopter stage, but number of feeds are growing as are the listeners. Apple ITunes can help one find music podcasts; Podzinger is good for finding spoken word.
Article suggests that the California company, PodShow might succeed at connecting artists with podcasters independent of the commercial networks. See its directory PodCast Alley.
Some broadcasters are producing mp3 podcast files. the NPR Podcast Directory is especially recommended.
In Canada, CBC has begun producing podcasts. See the list and signup for the newsletter at http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/.
TV Ontario has podcasts of some shows such as Diplomatic Immunity.
PodZinger Makes Podcast Searching Fast, Easy and Accurate, Business Wire (Jan 11)
"PodZinger today announced the launch of its podcast search engine (www.podzinger.com). Based on 30 years of speech recognition research and development from BBN Technologies, PodZinger is the fastest, easiest, and most reliable way for users to find the information they care about in podcasts. Two unique features of PodZinger make it exceptionally powerful and user-friendly: it displays the text surrounding the search term, so users can skim results the same way they skim text search results to assess relevance quickly; and it allows users to listen to the most relevant sections of their search results by simply clicking on any word in the search result and beginning audio playback from there."
Wonder if they will use the music to Goldfinger in their ads.
Blinkx Carves Out Niche With Podcast Search Tool By Keith Regan, Technology News (June 29, 2005) -- Blinkx has a podcast search tool -- "The Blinkx podcast search tool uses voice recognition software to transcribe audio and video content and then searches those transcripts for specific keywords entered by users. Blinkx made no secret that it felt its approach was superior to those from the major search engines."
The Podscope podcast search engine searches for audio content, Pandia Search Engine News (Dec 3) - Podscope does automatic transcription of audio and indexes it.
Interested in learning more about podcasting? U.S. Government has a page that explains podcasting as well as RSS and offers links to the U.S. reports. See Government Podcast and RSS Libraries.
Podcast search engines Pandia ( Nov 7) - Pandia explains that podcast sare "online radio programs made by professionals and amateurs alike" - download these and listen to them when you have the time. Article mentions ways to find these, and specifically names podcasts that are about search engines and search engine marketing.