When I opened up Bloglines this evening, I saw a new tip on how to listen to podcasts via the aggregator:
Using Bloglines To Track Podcasts
Podcasts are audio blogs that people create as an alternate form of online expression. Think of them as pirate radio on the web, free from the restrictions of time and geography. Some are professionally produced, like talk shows and music broadcasts, while others are less formal daily diaries and running commentary between friends.
Whether you are iPodless in Ipanema or a Podcasting Pro on the Go, Bloglines can help you find, track and enjoy podcasts.
Subscribe to Podcasts in Bloglines
If you are new to podcasting, find a few to sample by checking out some of the online guides to the new art, like www.ipodder.org or www.podcastingnews.com. Every podcast has an RSS feed, so simply subscribe to your favorites as you would any other kind of blog or news feed in Bloglines.
Once you subscribe to a podcast feed in Bloglines, it will be added to your personal My Feeds list. When a new podcast is available, you’ll see the alert next to that feed. Each podcast update has a text note accompanied by an “enclosure” icon that links to the audio podcast file. Simply click on that enclosure link to start the podcast. That will launch your desktop media player or specialized podcasting software like www.dopplerradio.net, and the podcast of your choice will play right from Bloglines.
Plus you can save podcasts to your Clippings folder, or post them to your Clip Blog to share with others.
Experienced podcast listeners like to use Bloglines to monitor for updates and get notification when new podcasts are available, so they never miss episodes of their favorites.
Well, I guess that makes me an experienced podcast listener, since I subscribe to virtually all of my feeds in both my podcatcher (I use iPodder) and in Bloglines.
I have decidedly mixed emotions about the characterizations and descriptions of podcasting that Bloglines provides. So I’ll pick them apart a little.
“Podcasts are audio blogs that people create as an alternate form of online expression.” Wrong. Podcasts are XML feeds that people offer as an alternate form of online syndication.
“Think of them as pirate radio on the web, free from the restrictions of time and geography.” BBC’s In Our Time could not possibly be further from “pirate radio.” I’ll give them the unrestricted time and geography part.
“Some are professionally produced, like talk shows and music broadcasts, while others are less formal daily diaries and running commentary between friends.” And many of them are neither nor. I’ll say it again: podcasting is a method of audio syndication, not a description of the content itself. Sorry to be such an evangelist on this point, but this is a very limiting mischaracterization, as far as I’m concerned.
Still, I’m glad to see Bloglines promote the inherent connection between RSS feeds and podcasts and discuss the access to enclosures that’s already available within their product.
However, using Bloglines to actually retrieve and/or play podcasted content loses some of the interesting functionality of “specialized podcasting software.” The content will not be downloaded automatically and added to your media player library, nor will it be ready to bounce onto your player the next time you synch up, which is much of the true beauty of the podcast format.
But if you are interested in picking and choosing selected content from your favorite sources, rather than automatically downloading everything those content creators have to offer, then this makes for a viable alternative.
