First thing I see when I click on the link is "Yahoo! apologizes deeply, but we will be closing down the Podcasts site on Oct. 31, 2007".
I only looked at the Yahoo site a little--since it is going away, I didn't want to waste time learning it.
There's some analysis at TechCrunch:
There is no official word from Yahoo as to why the site is shutting, aside from a message at the top of Yahoo Podcasts that reads “Yahoo! apologizes deeply, but we will be closing down the Podcasts site on Oct. 31, 2007.”
Other podcast directories have struggled as a medium that years ago held so much promise was surpassed by the rise of video. Odeo was acquired from investors, then sold off, then acquired another podcast directory called FireAnt; and more recently the podcast provider/ directory Podshow is rumored to be closing a third round of funding this week as they run short of money.
Yahoo Podcasts joins the ever growing Yahoo graveyard along with Yahoo Bill Pay (announced in July for Sep/ Oct shutdown) and the hat trick of closures in May of Yahoo Auctions, WebJay and Yahoo Photos. Yahoo Podcasts joins the TechCrunch Deadpool.
TechCrunch is a "is a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies. In addition to new companies, we will profile existing companies that are making an impact (commercial and/or cultural) on the new web space."--semiuseful in our line of work.
Doing a Google search on "search podcasts", I found podcastalley.com which looks like a portal like Yahoo; and Podscope a search engine that "Podscope lets you search the spoken word for audio and video that interests you." I tooled around in Podscope a little, but was unable to understand where my search results led me. I wandered around blindly a bit. I have enjoyed some podcasts I've heard, but the more unprofessional ones, which are rampant, leave me feeling a bit cold toward the experience. This made me think a portal like Podcastalley would be better. However, Podcastalley doesn't let you listen to a lot of clips to see how much you like them. It makes you subscribe using a podcast aggregator. Too much work for me! Plus the few I did listen to were really obviously commercial marketing. Oh well. Next!
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