Phonecasting

Wednesday, October 10th 2007 - 16:00 CEST - Comments: 0

T he recent news that the two year old Yahoo! Podcasts service is closing has ripped through the blogosphere causing much consternation. Is this the death knell for podcast search engines? Marshall Kirkpatrick, Lead Author for Read/Write Web (a leading tech blog), and an independent online software and marketing consultant, said, “The site never came out of Beta before the plug was pulled. There's not much information available beyond an underlined non-link now at the top of the site reading ‘Yahoo! apologizes deeply’… [however] the exact date of the closure seems to have fluctuated a bit already, but whenever it happens there are competitors ready to give podcast search outside of iTunes a go for themselves.”

> Lowest retail prices for Phonecasting

Yahoo! Podcasts service - Phonecasting

There may be services that try to fill the gaping hole Yahoo will leave behind, however the question is will they succeed where Yahoo seemingly failed? Is the process associated with the typical podcast search engine the answer to ferreting out a specific podcast through literally millions of choices? What, if anything can be done to make this process easier?

 

 

Phonecasting RSS XML

A Houston, Texas-based company called Phonecasting thinks they have some of the answers and plan a roll out their new podcast search engine in early November. For now, Phonecasting.com delivers a unique capability to assign a phone number to the RSS XML code of your specific podcast. Once you, as a publisher, have generated a phone number for your podcast it will show up along with that podcast link in most of the popular search engines.

 

Listen podcasts on a phone - Phonecasting

Let's say you want to hear a Fox newscast, for example. You type in the keywords ‘Fox News Phonecast' on Google and the first link in queue is Fox News Radio. The number assigned to the phonecast is 212-904-0080. The user can dial up that number from either their landline or mobile phone and listen to the latest, up-to-the minute newscast. When someone wants to listen to a podcast on a phone instead of having to be tethered or docked to a computer, a visit to the Phonecasting.com site is in order. Simply paste the RSS XML code of your podcast in the ‘Enter RSS link here' field. Click on ‘Get Phone Number' and voíla... instant phone number for your podcast.

 

Social networking tools

Michael Sharp, President and Founder of Phonecasting, speaking from the recent Podcast and New Media Expo in Ontario, California noted, "Phonecasting can be a compliment to the entire podcasting eco-system, allowing a much broader reach for your podcast than ever before possible. In fact, I feel strongly that the phone is the greatest social networking tool of all time, with a potential audience reach of billions. The service is dead simple. Any phone, landline or cell, can be a podcast player now. In essence, phonecasting is Grandma-friendly. Simply dial up and listen. Be sure to use your podcast phone number in your marketing programs to get the word out to your listeners that they can access your show anytime you have a new episode available for download, stream, or, dial up from phonecasting. Even more exciting phonecasting tools like our new P-commerce features will be available soon. The new features will allow listeners to touch a key and purchase your new book, recipe, or other content, all from the phonecast they are listening to. This will open up new and exciting channels of potential revenue for podcasters looking for ways to monetize their content.

 

 

 

Podcasting & Phonecasting

Both Podcasting and Phonecasting are near or at the top of the heap of the so-called "convergence between mobile and the Internet" technologies. Both are credible and increasingly important social networking tools. But which is more relevant? Which is easier to use? How easy is it to find a specific podcast? To begin, here are some recent comments about Phonecasting from Pauline Wallin, PhD., a well known Internet educator. "Why would you want to [listen to a phonecast]? Convenience, for one. No need to download anything to your computer or mp3 player. You're more likely to carry your cellphone than your music player. And phonecasting is perfect for short podcasts such as news headlines, sports reports or health messages."

• Nokia phonecasting
• iPhone phonecasting
• Podcasts for mobile phones
• Symbian Smartphone Show