Podcast.com News

We just launched a website, Videocast.com, that will give you easy access to free episodes from many new online video shows.  We would love you forever if you would take a few minutes to let us know what you think of the site.  We’re most interested in what you think when you first come to the Videocast.com home page, but feel free to browse and watch our collection of videos and let us know if something is not working the way you think it should.  Just send an email with your thoughts to beta[@]videocast.com (take the brackets out of the email address).  THANKS!

It’s that time of month again — we just finished tallying the Top 25 podcasts on Podcast.com for the month of April. Our Top 25 is representative of the podcasts you are listening to and watching on the Podcast.com website. We must say you have been fairly consistent with your listening and watching habits: the top 17 podcasts of April were also in the list of the top 25 podcasts for March.  Like we’ve said, if your favorite podcast is missing from this list, all you have to do is listen to it or watch it on the Podcast.com site (many many times) for it to make the top 25 podcast list for the month of May.  For now, here’s the Top 25 for April with the new entries into the Top 25 in bold letters:

1. World Soccer Daily Podcast
2. CNN News Update
3. Dictionary.com Word Explorer
4. Midwest Teen Sex Show
5. Open Source Sex
6. Sex is Fun
7. 60 Minutes Podcast
8. Oroscopo di Leonardo.it
9. BBC Global News
10. NOVA (PBS)
11. New York Times Music Popcast
12. Slate Magazine Daily Podcast
13. Voices from the 2006 ACLU Membership Conference
14. CNN Marketplace Update
15. ABC World News (Enhanced Video)
16. Geek News Central Podcast
17. BBC NewsPod
18. NPR Hourly News Summary
19. Il Ruggito del Coniglio
20. ESPN Radio Daily Podcast
21. Flipping Channels: a feature program from Podcast.com
22. Business Top Stories from The Associated Press (AP)
23. Boinkology
24. Comedy 365
25. Technology Top Stories from The Associated Press (AP)

These podcasts dropped out of the Top 25 this month: NPR: Books Podcast, Filmspotting, Bob Edwards Weekend, Sex with Devon, and Lonely Planet Travelcasts.

Each month we collect episodes from different podcasts about a certain subject. It’s easy: we collect the podcast episodes, you listen to our episodes or even subscribe to our playlist.  This feature for the month of April is about Earth Day, so we’ve collected different podcasts that celebrate the holiday: the lifestyle, the issues, the love for our planet. You can subscribe to our playlist here. Hope you enjoy this feature, and send an email to info at podcast.com if you have an episodes you’d like to add to this playlist.

You can find this and other features at my.podcast.com/features (make sure you click on the ‘View All Episodes’ icon in the middle of the screen to see every episode we collected).

Just making things easier around here — a few updates to a podcast page on Podcast.com:

• We’ve made it easier to subscribe to a podcast using Podcast.com. You can go to any podcast’s page on Podcast.com and click the ’subscribe now!’ button; if you are logged in to your Podcast.com account, the podcast will be added to your collection, and if you’re not logged in you will be prompted to do log in. Easy!
• We added a ’share podcast’ button that allows you to email a podcast you found to a friend.
• We’ve hidden a few of the advanced features found on a podcast page (permalink, Web link, RSS feed link, and the other subscription options) under the ’show advanced options’ button. We think putting fewer options in your face makes a podcast page easier to read.
• We added ‘log in’ links next to the ratings and tags, so you can log in to your account right there if you haven’t logged in yet.

We’re constantly working to make this site easier for you, so send an email to info at podcast.com if you have any other suggestions about these updates or any other updates you think we should make.

A “widget” is like a mini-website that you can add within your own personal website or blog. You can make a widget using podcasts from Podcast.com and put that widget on your Blogger.com blog or your self-hosted Wordpress site.

You start by logging in to Podcast.com, then create a widget using your collection of podcasts OR any collection of podcasts you find on our site — just click on the small image below the collection to get started. Read our FAQ for more instructions about how to add a Podcast.com widget to your site, and see a widget in action below.

We just finished tallying the Top 25 podcasts on Podcast.com for the month of March! Our Top 25 is representative of the podcasts you are listening to and watching on the Podcast.com website. We announced our first Top 25 podcasts for the month in February, and wouldn’t you know that over half of the Top 25 podcasts in March weren’t on February’s list. That means you like VARIETY, and there’s plenty of that on Podcast.com. Enough with the suspense: here’s the Top 25 for March, with the new entries into the Top 25 in bold letters:

1. World Soccer Daily Podcast
2. CNN News Update
3. Open Source Sex
4. Dictionary.com Word Explorer
5. Midwest Teen Sex Show
6. BBC Global News
7. 60 Minutes Podcast
8. Sex is Fun
9. ABC World News (Enhanced Video)
10. Bob Edwards Weekend
11. NOVA (PBS)
12. BBC NewsPod
13. Lonely Planet Travelcasts
14. Sex with Devon
15. Slate Magazine Daily Podcast
16. New York Times Music Popcast
17. CNN Marketplace Update
18. Voices from the 2006 ACLU Membership Conference
19. Geek News Central Podcast
20. NPR: Books Podcast
21. Comedy 365
22. ESPN Radio Daily Podcast
23. Boinkology
24. Filmspotting
25. Oroscopo di Leonardo.it

Looks like our hard work is paying off: Treedia Labs has been selected as one of the best 100 private companies in the Northeast U.S. by AlwaysOn, a media network that focuses on new business and technology.  We’re definitely proud to be in the Top 100, but that doesn’t mean we’ll stop working to make Podcast.com easier and more useful for you.  As always, if you have any suggestions for how to improve Podcast.com, click the Feedback link on our home page and let us know — and thanks for sticking with us.

We’re debuting an audio podcast produced in the Podcast.com studios.  It’s called Flipping Channels, a twice-monthly production that samples three podcasts you can find on one of our channel pages.  Here’s what it’s all about:

1. Focusing on a different channel every other week
2. Excerpting episodes from three different podcasts per FC episode
3. Being brief enough (under 10 minute per episode) to fit into a listener’s weekly schedule
4. Spotlighting podcasts outside of traditional media
5. Highlighting podcasts that may not be known by the masses

Sound good to you?  Check it out and send us feedback if you have comments.

With the elections in the United States just a few months away, many citizens of the world are earnestly starting to follow coverage on the candidates to be America’s next president.  Podcasts are an excellent way to absorb such coverage, as you can choose from a variety of opinions from big media companies as well as smaller podcasters that span the political spectrum.  Whether you are conservative or liberal or just interested in the process, you can find audio and video podcasts on the Politics channel of Podcast.com that will fit your needs.

Teachers of all ages of students are using podcasts to teach and teaching their students how to podcast.  Not only are students interested in making podcasts, but education podcasts are a great way for students to take their classes with them or to catch up on classes they missed.  Here are some recent stories about education podcasts that prove how podcasting is popular among students of all ages:

•  ”Kids are going to love it because now we can reach the world,” says a consultant who educates Kindergarten thru 8th Grade teachers on how to get students podcasting
• “It’s really increased a lot, believe it or not, an interest in writing, which is one of the most challenging things to get children to actually enjoy in the classroom,” says a 2nd grade teacher in North Carolina, USA who has students doing research projects using podcasts
• “It makes a real difference to them when they know that they’re families and friends are going to see their work,” says a 12th grade technology teacher in Ohio, USA who helps students and teachers publish their work
• “With podcasting, we have seen marks go up by 10 per cent on average,” says a dean at an undergraduate and graduate business school in Manchester, UK that offers podcasts to students