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Podcasting Trends of 2006

Joe Lewis — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 16:27:30 +0000

PodZinger has published the results of a study, revealing the top searches and trends on its site for 2006. The statistics showed that sports, talk personalities and world news topped audio search, while current events and pop culture accounted for the majority of online video searches.

It’s pretty safe to say that 2006 was the year of the podcast.

From Jim Cramer’s financial tips to Soccergirl’s well documented exploits as the world’s foremost breast activist, 2006 marked a year where digital content aficionados could find a podcast covering just about any topic imaginable.

PodZinger is a podcasting search engine that indexes content from site like YouTube and Rocketboom, allowing users to find both video and audio podcasts relating to specific search terms.

Compiling all the data from last year’s searches, PodZinger has published its report of the most popular video and audio podcasts of last year.

Most watched video podcasts of 2006:

1) ABC World News
2) Keith and The Girl
3) X-Play
4) CNN The Grist
5) Rumor Girls
6) ESApod
7) ICONS
Democracy Now!
9) Diggnation
10) TED Talks

Most listened to audio podcasts of 2006:

1) WMMR’s Preston and Steve
2) Radio Leo
3) CNN News Update
4) World Soccer Daily
5) Radio Nostalgia Network
6) Cramer Radio
7) The Geoff Show: Virgin Radio
Daily Noise
9) Wall Street Journal This Morning
10) Computer America

“The phenomenon of online audio and video search and advertising is catching on like wildfire with everyone from major brands, to marketers and individuals,” said Barbara Loonam, vice president of marketing, PodZinger.

“PodZinger’s unique ability to categorize multimedia content ensures that all of our users find the most targeted, relevant news, information and entertainment. The more that video peaks users’ interest, the more the trend is going to continue to grow.”

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Joe is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.

Blogger Rules Dismissed, Cuz We Say So

WebProNews Staff — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 16:27:11 +0000

People are busy. Email piles up. Probably why some of the prominent bloggers I solicited for a response to a British proposal that somebody regulate these free-wheeling, free-speaking modern yarn-weavers were too late for an earlier article. Shows what a swell, free market of ideas guy I am – and how nicely updatable Internet content is. Here’s a follow-up with those responses from people you know.

In case you missed it, Scott Johnson, Andy Beal, Robert Scoble, and Philipp Lenssen all agreed that a voluntary code of practice for bloggers, and a government-run but consumer-enforced agency to make sure they volunteer for the code, was a bad idea.

A really bad idea. The word “poppycock” comes to mind, though in Kentucky we like phrases like “horse-feathers!” and “fiddle-sticks!”

The late arrivals to my inbox were SEObook‘s Aaron Wall, Rocketboom‘s Andrew Baron, and none other than everybody’s favorite topless podcaster, Soccergirl.

Here, simply, is what they had to say:

Soccergirl — I think a blogger code of conduct would be the kiss of death for free speech. The whole f***ing point of all of this is to give individuals a forum for expressing their ideas, WHATEVER those ideas might be. The minute we start regulating what people can post, the freedom of the medium is compromised. No one is forced to read this stuff. It’s not getting broadcast on television or the radio. If people are concerned about being exposed to offensive content, they are perfectly capable of avoiding it on their own. We live in the real world, not a padded room.

Quit tiptoeing, Soccergirl. Tell us how you really feel. Baron was skeptical too, and diplomatic, as he’s known to be.

Baron — I could imagine a certain standard set of practices that bloggers employ – if they want to – to help guide them through issues of journalistic integrity, but I think most of blogging is not true journalism, but more simply subjective storytelling.

I think even the journalist bloggers may gain more integrity by being good storytellers and building up a trust that happens over time.

Obviously any non-voluntary regulations could be disastrous.

While Baron can imagine it, Wall likes it just the way it is and wonders who watches the watchdogs.

Wall — I think the web works well because there are few centralized governing bodies, especially when it comes to things like ethics and publishing. I think that if the authorities on blogging ethics became successful even some of the people who came up with or enforced the guidelines would end up being hypocritical.

Let me interject here at the end, because you know, I’m not typically one to voice my own opinions. (If you buy that, I’ve got some more stuff for sale.)

The blogosphere is the nearest rebirth society has seen of the oral tradition, where stories are handed down to others, continually modified and corrected and reconnected as needed. Speech regulators, a long, long time ago, squashed that tradition for various reasons, but their main one was, there was no real control of it, no way to settle once and for all how the story goes.

Hence the invention of writing things down on paper – once applied in permanent ink and made official by the appropriate bodies, there was now an unchangeable tale, and a means for redress for socially unacceptable ideas.

Redress. That is the word Tim the Toolman used, wasn’t it? As if it’s dressed wrong in the first place.

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Soccergirl: Breast Activist and Podcaster

WebProNews Staff — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 21:54:36 +0000

It’s not like topless girls are a new attraction on the Internet – for some, that’s the only reason to bother. But what if nudity was just an artistic statement, a protest, a backdrop to what was really being said? Podcaster/vidcaster Soccergirl, a.k.a. Anni, is more of a breast activist than a blatant nudist, but that’s beside the point.

Anni is not just another half-naked Internet model. She’s a podcaster, a musician, a writer, and a poet. At her day job, she’s a librarian/archivist. She’s writing a book about podcasting, she says.

>>> Watch our exclusive WebProNews interview with Soccergirl

That means this chick’s got some brains to go with her, um, other assets.

A soccer enthusiastic, hence the handle and the legs, Soccergirl was recently added to podgod Adam Curry’s network Podshow.com. That doesn’t mean Anni is at the quitting her day job stage, but she is closer to that. GoDaddy.com, known for recognizing, um, assets, is a big fan, and Anni can often be seen sporting a GoDaddy tank top on her vidcast.

On her show, Soccergirl Incorporated incorporates humor, satire, reality Internet TV, music, and social commentary. Musings about the impact of instant messaging on the English language, explorations of the nature of altruism, and satirical commentaries on the egotism of Mother Theresa are broken up with random acts of dancing in the living room or riding in the car.

It’s all very existential.

So what’s with the gratuitous nudity? It’s not like that’s all she has to offer.

Anni (pronounced ah-nee) says it’s an affront, so to speak, to societal norms. Though she’s received lots of criticism about R-rated content, Soccergirl says she can’t make sense of the idea that men are permitted to show their nipples, but women are not.

“It’s sexist,” she says.

Even stranger to her is the common acceptance that nearly an entire breast is permitted on television, but nipples remain taboo.

I know a lot of guys that would have her backnever mindon that one.

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