We are please to announce support for audio and video podcast subscriptions import! Timely? yes!!! With the closure of yahoo podcasts, what better time to import all of your podcast subscriptions into mefeedia so that you can manage, watch, and share ALL of your AUDIO and VIDEO “show” subscriptions!

To use the import, you will first need to join and sign-in to mefeedia. At that time, on the logged in home page, you will see a link to import your podcast subscriptions - it should be fairly easy, as long as you know how to get an OPML file from your podcast provider… if not, let me know personally and i can help - frank@mefeedia.com. Thanks!

See more in:audio, bloglines, itunes, odeo, opml, podcasts, subsriptions, video, yahoo

First Odeo was sold, bought, sold, then bought again. Now Yahoo Podcasts is shutting down. What is the future of audio podcasting? The market is clearly a video game, but is there a need for audio podcasts and can they be monetized? Our answer is a resounding YES! It is like saying “radio is dead” - which, of course, it is alive and kicking and transforming as well with HD Radio and Sirius/XM. This leads me to the following question:

Why are we still calling it “pod”casting? Why not just call audio “audio” and “video” video? Audio is more than just one device - it is about listening, and the last i checked, music discovery sites are being funded continuously.

Conclusion : we plan to continue to extend both our video AND audio capabilities. Audio travel stories, meditations, learning - all very popular audio programs - will continue to flourish. Video stories, vlogs, shows, and viral videos will, of course, grab the headlines. “All of your media in one place” is still a vision that is extremely attractive - and useful - to users.

See more in:mefeedia, odeo, podcasts, yahoo

We wrote earlier asking why Flickr still isn’t doing video and have done several updates since the news broke (again) that Flickr will be adding video and that Yahoo will be revamping their video site after “losing” to YouTube and Google.

From the sound of it, the new site sounds like it will compete with the likes of YouTube, AOL Video, MSN Video, and the new Joint Venture between NBC and Fox. Ho hum. Deals with all sorts of music labels and content companies just isn’t an important distinguishing factor. Contents companies are very smart nowadays - they realized that non-exclusive deals with as many big portals as possible is the best way to increase viewership.

Let’s hope Yahoo embraces what made Flickr successful in the first place - a great place for the indie photomakers that are passionate about photos and the tech influentials who wanted a collaborative place to put photo streams up around an event or topic. It is this influential and passionate audience that causes these sites to “go viral” and be widely adopted. As Om Malik pointed out, YouTube really became popular and the “winner” because it focused on becoming viral throughout the Internet, not just remaining as a destination site.

Mike Folgner, Yahoo’s general manager for video, said “We’re going to build a much better destination for you to access all this different content.'’ Let’s hope that Yahoo really means it. What would truly be a distinguishing factor? From what we have seen at Mefeedia, users want a place to find interesting video content from any destination, and then watch that content when they want it and where they want it. YouTube and others aren’t quite delivering on this promise yet. Mefeedia delivers on this promise today and we are continually improving the experience. Here is some information to back up that claim:

Any Content - over 24,000 feeds from over 14,000 video sites

• Mainstream Video Feeds - ABC, CBS, NBC, HBO, Fox, BBC, NPR, CNN, and more from around the world
• Music Video Feeds - see our music video guide
• Video Sharing Site Feeds
• Video Blog Feeds / Independent Content Producers
• Video Feeds around Events
• Video Feeds that are Local / Location-Based
• News Feeds
• Sports Feeds
• Audio Podcasts
• Video Podcasts

How You Want It - Personalized - Mefeedia allows you to have:

• My Personal Mefeedia Channel
• Social Discovery through your Friends to help find why you like

When and Where you want it - Mefeedia Personal Channels and Category Channels have been watched on:

• Feed Readers
• Media Players
• Mobile Devices
• Set-top Boxes
• Game Consoles
• Widgets
• Second Life Media Kiosks

See more in:flickr, mefeedia, video, yahoo

UPDATE 2: Techcrunch, again, is confirming that Flickr is adding video soon. Maybe they actually are going to do it…

UPDATE: Yahoo again said today that they plan to add video to Flickr. Om Malik expressed concern as to whether this was a good idea or not. I agree.
Back in March of 2005, Unmediated called Mefeedia the “Flickr for video“. Fast forward 2 years to 2007, and we still don’t see video support on Flickr, although back in May, Michael Arrington from Techcrunch wrote that they are working on it. But do we really need it? There are so many options for uploading videos nowadays. Just a run through some of key stats demonstrate that:

• Mefeedia aggregates:

• 24,000 video feeds
• Over 14,000 video sites (i.e. any site that contains some form of video - video sharing sites, video blogs, video news, etc.)
• These video sites include over 300 “video sharing” sites, all major blogging platforms, video blogger sites, and news sites.

This results in a huge volume of video. Some video tracking examples:

• iPhone videos (943 videos currently)
• Harry Potter book release
• There are a lot more examples of tagging videos, creating video playlists, putting together video guides, and creating personal channels.

Would Flickr be better off being a hyper-aggregator for video? Ff they do go that route, they could do the same thing to Yahoo Video that they have done to Yahoo Photos. Of course, this would put them in competition with Mefeedia, but i am confident our 2 year head-start will help. Mefeedia already kicked butt when it came to hyper-aggregation of video compared to the “big guys” back in April:

See more in:flickr, hyper aggregation, techcrunch, video, yahoo