Yahoo Gains Podcast Directory

News from the Yahoo Search Blog that Yahoo’s gained a new Yahoo Podcasts site, where you can search for podcasts or listen to them online. I’m looking forward to playing with it further in the near future and will likely do a longer look, especially in how it compares to Odeo, which has been my podcast search and listening tool of choice to date. Below, some quick thoughts.

Unlike Odeo’s “Channels” versus “Shows” metaphor, Yahoo Podcast uses a “Series” versus “Episodes” concept. It’s the same thing, whatever the name. Personally, I’d prefer something like “Stations/Broadcaster” versus “Shows” versus “Episodes.” Why? Consider:

  • Stations/Broadcaster: NPR is a radio station. Search Engine Watch is an internet broadcasting station. IE, both are entities that publish podcasts.
  • Shows: NPR has a variety of radio shows that it broadcasts. Search Engine Watch broadcasts only one show at the moment, the Daily SearchCast, but other shows will come.
  • Episodes: Any show may have individual episodes.

Why care about such things? An example was just on my mind. On Friday, I went looking to see if I could download NPR’s Morning Edition as a podcast (you can’t yet, I’ll revisit that later). I did an Odeo search with no luck, then eventually tried looking just for npr to see what I got coming up. It wasn’t that useful. I wanted channels from NPR, but I got channels and shows both, all mixed together, matching NPR.

Yahoo’s matching is much nicer, both in what comes back and also because it first lists any series that is found, then episodes — and you can drill down for more. Here’s the drill down I did for matching series for NPR, and it’s great relevancy.

Like Odeo, you can listen online. But sadly, you can’t subscribe to a channel without using actual music software (Yahoo pushes its own and Apple’s iTunes). I want to be able to see my list of shows online outside of software.

Skimming, I haven’t seen any way for a podcast publisher to claim their podcast, an exceptionally cool feature over at Odeo. Bring that on, Yahoo — plus an easy way to make an Add To Yahoo Podcasts button.

What about iTunes? Haven’t compared, but I generally have disliked that the only way to make use of that directory is to actually use iTunes. So another thumbs-up to Yahoo.

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https://www.searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2060804/yahoo-gains-podcast-directory
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