Ya-who?
It’s official, ladies and gentlemen. on October 31, 2007, Yahoo will cease it’s ‘Yahoo Podcasts‘ directory indefinitely. While that may not mean a lot to you - as you’re already subscribed to the two best podcasts in Calgary - it certainly means a lot to the rest of the podcasting world.
After iTunes, Google, Odeo, the Podcast Pickle, Podcast Alley, Digg, CanadaPodcasts.ca, and Pluggd, Yahoo Podcasts was the premier Podcast directory in which average listeners could discover and critique independent podcasts.
What does that mean in the long run? Well, not much, if taken at face value. But, if you consider Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Jaiku, De.licio.us, PodFeed, and the numerous other digital networking tools at our disposal, it means we’re - approximately - seven per cent worse off than we were yesterday.
Seven per cent doesn’t sound like a lot, but take this into consideration. Seven is a prime number. Not only that, but it’s also the number of Atlas‘ daughters, the atomic number of Nitrogen, and the code for international direct dial phone calls to Russia and Kazakhstan.
In all seriousness, Yahoo was one of the few directories that had the potential to cater to a mainstream audience - a ‘flashing 12‘ crowd, as some may say, and it’s disturbing to see the service fold at such crucial time for the medium.
The merger between Sirius and XM Satellite radio is looming; the number of active founding podcasts is diminishing, and a large majority of newer shows are struggling to compete with the rest of the online world. Yahoo Podcasts was one of the few (see: the above list) directories that could have been a household name.
What about the little guy? At this point, it doesn’t mean much. The issue will arise when CBC, CNN, CNBC, and all of the other C-words begin taking notice. The fact remains: Yahoo Podcasts was yet another community-supported, yet corporately-ignored, podcast directory that has fallen by the wayside - laying in the wake for its peers.
- Sean “Ajay” Joyner
October 9th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
I’m not certain that Ya-Who’s directory was community supported. I think the community (podcasters) wanted to supported it but Ya-Who completely ignored them. They made it impossible to claim your feed or make changes or even reach someone. The actually made itunes look good.