In September, Yahoo! closed down their Podcasting search service. Odeo is still languishing in my opinion. Podcast Alley is well designed and easy to use, but is full of horrible horrible content leaving me to question the voting system they have as being seriously gamed. Google’s stayed pretty much out of the game, but there is a Google custom search that’s pretty good.

So what is going on?

• Has iTunes declawed podcasting with it’s search tool and lack of features?
• Is it too hard to get current podcasts onto listening devices?
• Are we seeing a “normal” hype-cool-settle cycle?
• What about the new in-car technologies?
• Will the iPhone and wireless iPod help?
• Are podcasts inherently non-viral?

What’s even more perplexing is that our on-demand society craves time-shifted, portable entertainment. Podcatchers are the ultimate web audio “Tivo” equivalent. You can isolate items of interest and let it fill up unaided…then listen to a stream of custom audio.

The Google Trends chart to the right could be slightly misleading when it comes to the “Christmas Spikes.” Since more people have MP3 players already, the height of the spike, and thus the novelty of podcasts, will probably be shorter, but the overall trend is compelling and consistent with the premise of this post.

Wizzard.tv claims 1 billion downloads in 2007. That’s big.

My suggestions to improve podcasting include:

• Podcasters must create content people want. Please quit spewing poorly-tagged, over-hyped garbage.
• Connect podcasts to GPS and stream local content (especially for the tourism industry)
• Podcasts should STOP when there is nothing else to talk about. They are too long! Get to the point already.
• Make it easy to find podcasts based on your interests? Hasn’t behavioral targeting come far enough for this yet?
• Podcasters should prepare for their shows. I’m so sick of “I didn’t have time to get ready” type shows. If that happens. Don’t do it!
• Podcasters need an easy way to translate their shows to non-English.
• Stop with the fancy, 3-minute long intros. I don’t want to hear the tractor-pull-style hype buildup.
• We need to improve tagging and chapter marks. Podcast producers must take the time to tag their work as well as isolate sections when the subjects change drastically.
• Itunes must improve podcast search. Top-ten podcasts within a genre would be a good start. Editor’s Picks and better identification of video podcasts would help too. Someone should raise the barrier to entry into iTunes podcasting. If the podcast doesn’t get subscribers, kill it.
• Make it simpler to subscribe, right from the device. More explanation to the newbie of what’s going to happen when they click subscribe would help. Why must I surf the web for 30 minutes to find a good show? Why not let me set up my interests (ala Tivo) and just let the system fill up my podcast-allocated area on my player?
• “New Podcast Suggestion” tools need to be developed based on meta search.
• Auto-transcription systems or Human-transcribed systems will help with indexing content (though they may not be terribly useful to users as readable text) and, if well-engineered, allow “fast forwarding” to a certain point in the podcast as well as enabling translation to other languages.

Postscript:  Complete post that PodShow Podcasting Network Grew 29144% in 2007.

100%. That’s how many of my comments have been censored by local Lexington TV Stations, dropping any credibility for a real attempt to build a community online.

I wonder….If you have something “thoughtful” to say, perhaps not jibing with the bible-beltish, hyper-conservative viewpoints, would it ever be published? From what I can tell, the only thing that makes it in are “God bless our troops” or short, brain-dead “hollerin’”

All of my comments were SFW. I’m not a trouble maker, well, not really, nor am I a minion ready to “cute” my way on the screen.

“We have to keep our comments family-friendly” — oh really?

So that is why you post Santa with a M-16. Yee haa.

Let the top 10/20/30 lists begin! Here’s my top stories round-up, using information I collected as I write my latest article for Business Lexington. I’m almost certain to come back and adjust links, so bookmark me, and add your own - cause I know I’m missing some!

iPhone Stirred the Mobile Internet marketplace. While the iPhone earned raves for its interface and sleek styling, it still was designed to operate only on the AT&T/Cingular wireless network, lacked a keyboard and did not operate on 3G broadband networks. Buyers still swooped in after the device, buying one million iPhones in 74 days. The iPhone platform readily integrates a number of Internet technologies that will benefit greatly from the planned 3G version in 2008. Still, it’s worth keeping in mind that the iPhone is still only around 1% of the marketshare. Later it was announced that a 3G iPhone will be available soon.

Merger and Aquisition Madness in the Search Advertising Google acquired Internet Advertising Company Doubleclick for $3.1B, Microsoft bought Ad Agency aQuantive (including Avenue A/Razorfish) for $6B, and Yahoo! bought Right Media creating a potential for conflict of interest in the web search advertising giants that some see as an unfair monopoly.

Google’s Street-Level View Google’s “Street View” solutions for Google maps allows a “virtual drive” of certain cities via 360-degree images captured by specially equipped cars. Privacy advocates quickly found people in compromising positions on some images and Google offered a “blur-out request form” on their website. Microsoft’s version garnered some attention as well, showing scenes through the windows of a race car.

(more…)

Well, in February of this year, I posted that Lexington’s CompUSA had avoided the chopping blog as the company closed half of its stores.

Well, the other shoe is falling, and CompUSA will be putting all of its stores in Liquidation.

To everyone at CompUSA Lexington, I am really sorry about this and hope you all find new gigs quickly.

With the wireless broadband network now available in Nicholasville, Kentucky.

Verizon Wireless customers can enjoy two prime services:

• BroadbandAccess, the enhanced high-speed wireless service that equips Verizon Wireless’ business customers with a truly untethered mobile office experience, enabling them to wirelessly access their calendars, the Internet, e-mail, and critical business information residing behind their companies’ firewalls; and
• V CAST, a consumer-oriented multimedia service that gives customers access to the most comprehensive selection of downloadable music, high-quality videos, and the coolest 3D games found anywhere.

This very, very small market is a part of the Lexington Metro Service Area, which is already covered by Verizon Broadband.

Related news

Verizon covers Penn State with Wireless Broadband.

Maine and Connecticut get wireless broadband coverage increase from Verizon.

Ok, first come first served. I have a limited (VERY) number of discount codes for Yahoo! Merchant Solutions that will give you 25% off for 6 months. NEW customers only. Existing Yahoo! Solutions Customers Excluded.

Steps:

1. Don’t sign up yet.
2. Send me an email to my task tracker requesting the code. [ info ->at<- priorityhelp ->dot<- com]
3. I’ll send you a sign-up link and a special code.
4. THEN sign up.

My firm is a Yahoo! Small Business Partner and I’m a Yahoo! Search Marketing Ambassador, so I have a few of these.

When they’re gone, they’re gone.