Year: 2005

Jackie Huba at the Church of the Customer blog writes about a phenomenon called Google Juice, which is supposed to be “the ethereal substance which flows between web pages via their hyperlinks (in both directions!” and “the mysterious quality that causes pages to come up high in a Google search”. And since Google like blogs, bloggers get high rankings. For example, the number one Robert on Google is Microsoft überblogger Robert Scoble (except he’s really #4 when I try the search). Turns out I am Hans #27 on Google, and like Scoble, I don’t even have my name as the name of my blog. Other examples are Swedish blogger Henrik Torstensson, the #1 Henrik on Google, a few notches before writer Henrik Ibsen.

Swedish Radio are testing podcasting for their English language program Radio Sweden. What is interesting to see is that they use free tools like Blogdrive and Feedburner. The articles are distributed via an RSS feed at Blogdrive (http://radiosweden.blogdrive.com/index.xml) and the podcasts via Feedburner (http://feeds.feedburner.com/RadioSweden). And I don’t think it’s wrong to rely on external solutions because it shows that they are eager to try new things and get started, rather than wait for internal procedures which almost always slow these kind of initiatives down. One negative effect though might be if they decide to change tools in the future and have a new URL, they might lose subscribers.

For some reason the mp3 files are posted to a free blog on Blogspot.com while the actual files are located on radiosweden.org.

Apple has now stopped iTunes users who use DVD Jon’s PyMusique hack. It made it possible to download songs without any copy-protection technology attached. But in order to plug the security hole, Apple is now requiring anyone who wants to buy songs from the iTunes Music Store to upgrade to at least iTunes 4.7.1, and it has some negative side effects.

Two weeks ago Virgin Radio became the first UK radio station to podcast a daily show. The shows are free thanks to advertising. Writes Brand Republic:

The programme will be around 40 minutes long and should be available from about 10.30am each morning for listeners to play back whenever they want. Ads will appear at the beginning and in the outro, with short ads interspersed through the programme.

This is quite interesting because it means that I will now have access to international radio even if I’m not strapped to my computer. It would also be interesting to see if this kind of advertising works or if listeners simply fast forward the ads.

Current.org has a list of broadcasters who podcast.

Former Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards is going to start podcasting next week, according to CNET.

I just recently listened to my first podcasts. I hadn’t really bothered to try it out until there was some content that I’d be interested in. But fellow PR bloggers Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson are doing a groundbreaking job with their podcast “For Immediate Release – the Hobson and Holtz Report” so I simpy had to tune in. And I must say it is a terrific show, it’s like having a one hour radio show about PR and blogging twice a week that you can listen to any time you want. Highly recommended (although I had some trouble with the latest podcast which was all messed up in my mp3-player).

UPDATE: Seems that the file is working the second time I tried it. No idea why.

Now it seems that SR, Swedish public service radio, are starting podcast trials, initially with 5 or 6 shows that will be available in mp3-format. There are still some copyright issues to be solved regarding for example signature tunes.