Podcasting Could Use Some Link Love

Podcasting would be so much more popular if it had a linking mechanism.  In this post where I  referenced a conversation that occurred on the Gillmor Gang Podcast, the "link" is sending you to the Gillmor Gang site and then telling you how far to fast forward to find the part I was referencing.  This is really clunky experience, but I don't know a better way to reference podcast content.

I think that Podzinger, the Podcast Search Engine, is sitting on the solution.  Next to every set of results, they provide you with a nice little widget (seen on the left) that lets you listen to the result right from the search page.  Podzinger would not be a very interesting service if every search result told you to go download the podcast and forward to minute 7.  Wouldn't you be more likely to discuss podcast content in your blog if you could have a widget like this to embed the actual audio you are talking about?  I think the answer to both questions is yes.

Right now, the barrier to entering a podcast conversation is much higher than in blogging.  I would argue that the conversation in Podcasting is mainly podcaster to podcaster and the audience participation is an aside.  Sure, you can comment on the podcast's blog or trackback from your own blog, but the most powerful part of it all, the audio, is left all alone in iTunes.  Also, the delayed reaction that a "comment line" provides can hardly be called a conversation.  This widget could enable much more engaging conversations.

I am not saying that podcasts should be listened to entirely from the widget.  The widget would just provide a snippet of content, maybe 5 minutes or so. 

In addition to finding new listeners, this widget would be another place to insert advertising. 

So, Barbara, what do you think?  Is this a good idea? 

Comments

[zz]

http://click.tv has apporached this a little bit different by enabling user comments at any instant of the video streaming. This creates a compelling real time discussion of the video and then the content of the video is defined by the audience (which brings metadata automatically) and the video becomes immensely searchable...It will be eay to imagine this service to be integrated into youtube and other social video sites..
-zz

[Dana Gardner]

Another way, albeit a workaround, is to make a transcript of the podcast, link through it and make it available along with the audio. I do this at http://briefingsdirect.blogspot.com and it works pretty well.

[Barbara]

This is a great idea!

As you say, this type of service can enable "conversations" around specific portions of media.

We believe that the concept of relevance is very personal. That means it should be easy to 1. get to the audio or video portions that are important to you and 2. to share those.

In fact you should see this feature roll out from PodZinger before the end of Q1 with the capability to "cut" any length of the media to share or post.