Although I’m still a little bleary-eyed from returning on the red-eye from Podcast and Portable Media Expo, I want to put my thoughts down while they are still fresh. This event attracted a wonderful and extremely energetic cross section of podcasters, podcast suppliers, and traditional media companies and outlets as well as a lot of newbies. It also underscored that we are on the precipice of an online media revolution.

A year ago, we knew that podcasting and what it meant to the industry was going to be BIG, however to some untrained eyes they saw the attendees as a group of hobbyists. This year we saw the same early adopter group back but with a new confidence that only success can bring. They have increased their user base, they are mentoring the newcomers, they are adding video, they are partnering and they are planning for the future.

The seeds of this revolution have been planted with traditional media. We ran into people that hailed from companies and organizations with well recognized names. Some are still trying to get a foothold, yet we found the majority have embraced this new paradigm for online media.

These are exciting times we live in. And, it promises to be an even more eventful year.
Find out what others are saying about the Podcast and Portable Media Expo on PodZinger.

Podcamp Boston was a huge success and Henry had a lot of fun presenting and meeting some really amazing people.

If you have missed the show, check out what others have said. We found a total of 57 podcasts within our PodZinger search.

Update: Podcamp NYC , Philly and San Francisco are already in the works and we just want to give a shout out to the un-organizers for making the event such a success.

The Massachusetts state primaries are today, and although Chris Gabrieli and Attorney General Tom Reilly have spent millions of dollars on television advertising campaigns, Deval Patrick is the leading Democratic candidate, according to several recent polls.  Gabrieli ranks second, with Reilly trailing at third.

While the numbers favor Patrick, there are always the last minute, dormant participants who vote on Election Day, often dramatically shifting the official count.  And now that information is so readily available through the Internet with blogs, podcasts and videos, voters have instantaneous access to uncover the latest details on candidates’ opinions, views and backgrounds.

We have been encouraging voters to utilize our technology to quickly research candidates based on the information that is important to them.  Just yesterday I wanted to know Reilly’s position on healthcare, so I “Zinged” the two terms and was taken directly to where they were mentioned, saving me the time of listening to the entire WBZ NewsRadio broadcast. 

Here are some other podcasts that discuss the candidates and upcoming election:

In the Studio with Paul Sullivan – Senior Political Analyst John Henning and CBS4 Commentator/Debate Moderator Jon Keller provide their opinions on the Democratic candidates after the final debate before the primary.

WRKO - Scott Allen Miller - Scott Allen Miller interviews Chris Gabrieli and Tom Reilly one week before the primary election.

WBZ NewsRadio Headlines – Get a recap of the final debate between Tom Reilly and Deval Patrick, discussing issues such as health, education and taxes. 

For more information on the gubernatorial elections or Political Analyst John Henning’s opinion on which candidate he views to have had the most successful final debate, check out PodZinger.

Alex Williams of Corante notes that a lot of the nominees for the upcoming Podcast Awards do not have what he calls “elements of a podcast,” which includes RSS feeds, show notes, podcast feeds and contact information.

Here’s a summary from Insomnia Radio on some of the statistics Todd Cochrane found on this year’s entries:

* 78% of the submissions had invalid feeds, according to FeedValidator.org.

* Of the remaining feeds, 96% had glaring errors.

* 42% did not have an RSS feed button on their home page.

* 26% did not have a link to the file in their show notes.

* 21% had less than 2 lines of show notes.

* Some feeds were huge, as big as 500K and 367 entries.

* Only 49% of the submissions provide a way to contact the podcaster.

* 200 of the submissions that called themselves podcasts had no podcast feeds.

Williams thinks that podcasters should market their podcasts a little better and we agree with him that it is important to promote your podcasts and put your show out there to be discovered. Yet, we also know how much work it is to dive into a whole marketing campaign, especially if you are working on a small budget and podcasting is not your day job.

That’s where PodZinger comes in – we help listeners find podcasts that are deep in the dark alleys but yet are still relevant to the listeners.

*Note: The Podcast Awards will be held at the end of this month at the Podcast and Portable Media Expo. We’ll be there and Alex (our CEO) will be on the discussion panel for “Podcast Metrics: Gauging Success with Different Audience Segments”

With August just around the corner and fall close behind, the sunny days of summer are coming to an end faster than I’d like.  But there is still a month of warm weather to make on-the-fly vacation plans or take a last-minute road trip. Americana is in full bloom during the summer–from Fenway and its franks and folk art festivals to blueberry pie and bluegrass.

Without too much planning, a quick weekend getaway can be easily done and if you’re looking for tips about what to do and see, I’ve discovered several podcasts that give you an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at what’s happening in Americana.

Whether it’s visiting Mike’s Pastries in Boston or escaping the city heat by touring New York’s Metropolitan, there are plenty of ways to tempt your taste buds, enjoy the night life, and relax on a Sunday afternoon.

Here are some podcasts to check out:

Boston Behind the Scenes
Ever wonder what makes a city tick? Join Adam Weiss for a look behind the scenes in Boston.

The Metropolitan Musem of Art Special Exhibition Podcast
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s official podcast features exclusive commentary and programs relating to special exhibitions. The Museum’s exhibitions span the ages and represent cultures from every part of the world.

Trends Taste and Travel
Captain Cy Emerus is your Host for Trends, Taste and Travel.  Captain Cy is an actual airline captain who has spent the last 35 years taking travelers to exotic destinations the world over.

Talk Theatre in Chicago
A weekly podcast about Chicago’s theatre scene.

PodZinger’s chairman and CEO, Alex Laats, is speaking tomorrow at Search Engines Strategies Latino, the premier event for Hispanic and Latin America markets. Moderated by Mike Grehan, founder and CEO, Smart Interactive, the panel, “Meet the Search Engines” will also feature speakers from Yahoo! Search and Search Marketing and Google Brazil.

As you may already know, PodZinger en Español allows users the ability to search the ever-expanding world of North American Spanish multimedia content. Soccer fans can search fútbol or mundial to relive World Cup highlights while political activists can engage in the immigration debate, as presented on the popular Frecuencia Norte podcast series.

In the upcoming months, Alex will also be speaking at Digital Hollywood’s Building Blocks Conference in San Jose in August and at the Podcast and Portable Media Conference in Ontario, California in September.

PodZinger was honored last week at the 2006 MITX Technology Awards ceremony as the winner for the Best Web 2.0 Application. The event , hosted by the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange, brought together up-and-coming as well as better-known organizations from New England that are on the forefront of innovative technologies.

The highlight of the evening however, was Nicholas Negroponte’s keynote where he did an impressive show-and-tell of the $100 laptop, a computer designed for use and affordability for children in developing countries. Mr. Negroponte, one of the founders of MIT’s Media Lab, currently heads the One Laptop per Child program and its goal of putting what is commonly referred to as the $100 laptop into the hands of children in developing countries. Jim Rapoza’s article in eWeek describes Mr. Negronponte’s presentation article and even includes pictures of a working model.

During his speech, Mr. Negroponte emphasized that his program isn’t about the technology per se, but about the goal of giving children all over the world the tools to educate themselves. A very inspiring evening indeed.

Video bloggers will be camping out at the Swedish American Hall in San Francisco this weekend (June 10 & 11) for Vloggercon 2006. The event promises two full days for video bloggers to meet and learn from one another and to discuss about the future of this new medium. The schedule shows sessions with very interesting topics including, Community Vlogs, Educators, Interactive Vlogging and Political Vlogging & Social Change. Speakers include Steve Garfield, JD Lasica, Amanda Congdon and many more… I’m sure we’ll get to see many interesting videos next week after the event!

PodZinger received word that it has been named a finalist for the 3rd Annual MITX Technology Awards, which recognize innovative technologies developed in the New England area, as well as the individuals and organizations responsible for driving these advancements. The Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX) is the region’s premier association for thought leadership, technology trends, business networking and professional training and development.

From the MITX folks:

“In its third year, the MITX Technology Awards have attracted some of the most distinguished technological innovations that the region has to offer,” said Kiki Mills, Executive Director of MITX. “It is this tremendous interest that enables our organization to accomplish its mission of uniting the brightest minds in the technology community and honoring their outstanding achievement.”

PodZinger will be recognized with the other finalists in the Web 2.0 category at an awards ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston on Wednesday, June 7, 2006.