I spent a substantial portion of Saturday (the part where I wasn’t shoveling) updating the Podcasting 101 wiki. I’d created it a few years ago to serve as a basic presentation template, so I wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel every time someone requested a talk about podcasting. It hadn’t been touched in almost two years and, let me tell you, much has changed in the podcasting arena.

In updating links, I discovered the trend is not positive for the average podcast consumer. Many of the compelling applications, search tools and recommendation engines developed in the swell of enthusiasm for podcasting have either disappeared, moved a different direction or moved into the enterprise app business, leaving people like me with far fewer options for discovering the rich content available in podcasts. The redirections taken by both Loomia and Podzinger are particularly striking.

Much of the momentum has moved into videocasting. Blinkx seems to have dropped any efforts at indexing audio content. It’s a logical move forward, but people thought radio would die with the advent of television and it never happened. I feel the same way about audio podcasting. There will continue to be a market for it and money to be made for someone with the right approach to making it stupid-easy for newcomers to get involved (and the wits to take on Apple).

Fortunately, there have been positive developments in podcasting, including, most notably for me, the introduction of TalkShoe, the platform that makes Uncontrolled Vocabulary possible. Although not without its share of issues, TalkShoe makes it pretty easy for the average webizen to put together and record (and distribute via podcast) a live interactive audio program.

Anyway, the wiki page has been updated sufficiently that I’m no longer embarassed by its outdatedness.