(link)

Among other nice features, this system filters from thousands of Podcasts to show (ranked by rellevance) to the user a list of podcasts he would love, based on his favourite and recommended artists (by the system).

iPODCASTle report gives good clues about market size and business opportunities. Includes quite a few ideas for making money from podcasting. The key is to figure out which segment you want to play and make money in. (link)

To respond to some of the comments above:

“Radio is a time-killer…” - Look at it this way: Podcasting isn’t a time-killer; it gives people content they want to listen to so they can multi-task. “Audio, unlike text, is quite passive.” That’s pretty much the point. You can’t read the newspaper or go see a stand-up comedian while you’re driving to work or exercising at the gym - but you can listen to a podcast.

And that’s why streaming won’t work, as someone suggested above. You can’t bring streaming audio with you on an iPod.

And maybe Dave Winer’s production quality sucked, but that’s his problem. There are plenty of podcasts that don’t suck. Music, politics, business, comedy, sports…find a good one.

And there’s so much potential beyond the general consumer market. This is a great public relations tool, a great way to keep beat reporters in the loop on company news and industry trends. It’s a great way to keep a sales force that is spread across the country on the same page. It’s a great way for a store like Best Buy to answer questions about technology without having to pay another kid to stand around in the store.

Podcasting: Fact or Fiction? Fact.

For a mere $1,495, you can get the latest Diffusion Group podcast report, Podcasting as an Extension of Portable Digital Media – Fact, Fiction, and Opportunity, released yesterday. Before you do, be sure to read Om’s take on the predictions….

Podcasting is going to continue to boom for the next 12 months or so, but then just like blogging, alot of the field is going to be thinned out because of economic and interest reasons (its just not that easy to entertain and amuse your audience for 30 minutes a week when you don’t have a unique topic). But podcasting as a whole will probably remain strong as the solid shows take hold and grow their audiences.

Having all these podcasts to choose from is very cool. I have found myself listening to the local radio stations very rarely now. When I use to have the radio on, now I am listening to the podcasts of interest to me.

I can see a small consumer market for podcasts: NY Times summary, Morning becomes Eclectic, Stern, etc. But I can see a bit larger commercial market: morning squawk box, daily sales pep talk, education, etc.

But overall, this is a yawner.

So aside from the fact that podcasts are so much more unsexy, not to mention inaccurate when they’re described as “time-shifted digital audio files”, our good friend Om Malik basically trashes a new report by The Diffusion Group that…