Where to Find Podcasts

You'll run across podcasts all over the Web on blogs and sites you already visit, but seeing shows organized by category or using social tags, which listeners use to collaboratively categorize podcasts and identify popular programming, can help you find your way to intriguing new podcasts. A number of sites collect all or most of the podcasts on the Net. Here's a selection of some we find especially useful:

- iTunes: Despite many criticisms, iTunes has mastered the integration of podcasting — audio and video podcasting — with commercial services. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

- Podcast.net: A kind of Yahoo! directory of podcasts, Podcast.net uses tagging to identify topics along with categorization of the programming. The site provides an online player, so it keeps you within its borders rather than making you subscribe using your own podcatcher. http://www.podcast.net/

- Odeo: Besides being a broad index of everything podcast, Odeo is a self-serve podcast production system that lets people produce their own podcasts. We like the listener-authored reviews and use of social tags, which help expose interesting programming. Odeo has an embedded online podcast player, but it doesn't provide easy access to subscription URLs. Rather, it keeps people within the Odeo world. http://www.odeo.com/

- Yahoo! Podcasts: Hey, it's commercial, from Yahoo!, but it's comprehensive and there are real people doing some discovery of new and interesting stuff, as a magazine editor does when he tells you what he likes. Subscription links are available from the site. http://podcasts.yahoo.com/

- Podcast Alley: Created by Chris McIntyre and no one else, the site is largely the work of podcasters who want to get more attention for their shows, but it also does a fine job of tracking what's popular and what's changed recently by genre or a specific title. Subscription links are provided so that they can be pasted directly into an aggregator. http://www.podcastalley.com/

- Podcasting News: Another wide-ranging directory, though it takes some effort to get through all the listings under each category. But you get direct links to browse recent shows or to subscribe. Lots of good listener ratings. http://www.podcastingnews.com/

- NPR Podcast Directory: While the programming choices are limited, this is a great guide to the public radio podcasts from all over the United States. From individual segments from Morning Edition and other NPR shows in a daily best-of collection to local issues shows, this is where to look. http://www.npr.org/podcasts

- Melodeo: A recent entrant in the business, Melodeo is a combination of podcast directory and social network. It combines commercial and "amateur" podcasts with discussion by members, rankings, and a nifty interface that delivers most of its information through pop-ups within the page that let you navigate to forums where people are talking. The system also bundles and delivers podcasts to some mobile phones as streams (you need a very generous data plan to make this affordable). http://www.melodeo.com/

- Audible Wordcast: Another relatively new player, Wordcast blends the fee and free subscriptions offered by Audible and others into a single resource where you can find amateur and "professional" podcasts from the New York Times, Ricky Gervais, and many others. http://wordcast.audible.com/