Podcastplayer.org news

Here’s a more interesting idea than most of the “hey let’s set up a directory of podcasts” that seem to be springing up around the web. Let’s face it guys, those are just reinventing the likes of yahoo or dmoz - incomplete, and superseded by search.

Techpodcasts, on the other hand, seems to be attempting a tighter community of “affiliates” (which , as far as I can tell, seem to be more like “contributors” or “columnists” than affiliates in the usual web “click through me and I get a kickback” sense). The idea is that people can apply to become affiliates, and those that meet certain criteria on content, quality, and regularity get to join, and get listed.

The idea certainly seems reasonable. What worries me about techpodcasts in particular, though, is the very broad range of subject matter in the podcasts, and the apparent lack of easily browseable information about the feeds and the individual ‘casts. For example the current “affiliates” list is shown as:

Apple Logs
Digital Experience Podcast
eDave.org Security News
Geek News Central
Home Network Help
In the Trenches
Linux Log Podcast
Michael Lehman
Microsoft Log
Mondays
One Minute Tip .com
Software as She Developed
Tech Rag Tear Outs
The Brad Cast
The Chris Pirillo Show
The Feed
The MacCast
.Net Rocks
WebTalk Radio

Some of those give hints about typical content (the MacCast, Microsoft Log, .Net Rocks, Linux Log), but the rest could be anything that the site owners consider “tech” enough..

Personally, I’d like to know a bit more about a feed before I subscribe. I’m not at all interested in Mac-specific ramblings, for example, but stuff about cutting-edge OO and Agile software development would go in my podcatcher ASAP.

So, techpodcasts, for your “value add", please make finding out about the general content of feeds, and the specific content of ‘casts a painless (and maybe even pleasant) experience. Use your imagination, delight potential listeners.

Read more at www.techpodcasts.com - Home.