RAMP-The Content Optimization Company

Digg, one of the fastest growing social media site recently launched a new version of their site. They’ve added several new features, including an “upcoming stories” tab that allows users to review more stories than those that have made it to the top page. They’ve also added more categories, including videos, entertainment and gaming, and other sub-categories.

We’re surprised they missed out a “podcasting” category since the digg founders Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson have their own podcasts at Diggnation.

And interestingly enough, when we did a “podcast” search on digg, we found a “Digg for a podcast category.” If, like us, you think that there should be a podcast category, please digg it here.
*Disclaimer: We did not submit this and have no affiliation with Viper_000

On another note: the Oxford English Dictionary has added Google as a verb in the dictionary. Maybe Zing! It might be in the dictionary one day.

Here’s the definition for Google as a verb:
intr. To use the Google search engine to find information on the Internet.
trans. To search for information about (a person or thing) using the Google search engine.

Here’s our take on Zing! It as a verb:
Intr: To use the PodZinger search engine to find podcast/Vidcasts on the Internet
Trans. To search for podcasts/Vidcasts about (a person or thing) using the PodZinger search engine.

Only 1000 people are invited to attend the high profile TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conference each year, but now you can experience the best speeches as part of TED’s new TEDTalks program. One of the most notable talks is given by Al Gore who begins with a very funny and truly entertaining introduction and then goes on to discuss the climate crisis and what we can do about it. Bruno Giussani has put out a great post about this in The Huffington Post.

Here at PodZinger, we are extremely pleased to be able to power the search feature for these talks. Using the podcast format and distribution model, TED is releasing these for free to the public so that anyone can listen, watch, download, and ultimately ponder great ideas that can change the world. Today the TEDTalks library includes talks by other luminaries such as Tony Robbins, Majorca Carter, David Pogue, Hans Rossling, and Sir Ken Robinson. New speeches will be added regularly.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – (June 27, 2006) – PodZinger (www.podzinger.com), the only audio and video search engine that enables full-text search, today announced that visitors to the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference Web site will be able to use PodZinger’s innovative multimedia search to browse the just-launched TEDTalks video library. TED is an annual event where leading thinkers and doers gather for inspiration. For the first time, the happenings of the event are being shared with the general public. Starting today, the public can download the talks, which will feature Al Gore, Bono, and more than 30 other distinguished speakers in a format specifically edited for a wide range of media at www.ted.com/tedtalks/.

“Each of these remarkable speakers has the power to inspire, to persuade, to change the way people view the world,” said June Cohen, Director of TED Media. “We want to make these talks accessible to the widest possible audience. Our partnership with PodZinger takes that accessibility to a new level, by allowing people the rather extraordinary ability to search within the talks, and narrow in on the precise concepts that interest them most.”

PodZinger uses speech recognition technology to create a text index of the audio, which enables users to search for content anywhere within audio and video files and jump directly to the point where their keyword is spoken. Visitors are able to take advantage of PodZinger’s innovative technology to search the content-rich TEDTalks library. By improving the relevance of audio and video search, PodZinger connects users directly with the topics that interest them and helps content providers like TED maximize the use of the valuable information they posses and share it with knowledge-seekers around the world.

“We are excited about our search relationship with TED, as the TEDTalks content is truly unique and compelling on a global level,” noted Alex Laats, president, PodZinger. “Our relationship with TED highlights one of the many ways PodZinger can work with content creators and providers to enable them to maximize the value of their content and make it more accessible to their audience. Whether a potential partner is looking to build its community, increase revenue streams or re-purpose its vast library of audio and video content, text-based multimedia search is a powerful service.”

Speakers Who Have the Power to Change the World
TEDTalks premieres on June 26 with six extraordinary speakers: Former US Vice President Al Gore (giving the talk that followed his now-famous presentation on climate change), Macarthur Award recipient Majora Carter, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, New York Times technology columnist David Pogue, education visionary Ken Robinson, and founder of the non-profit Gapminder, Hans Rosling. TEDTalks were made possible through the sponsorship of BMW

Additional talks will be released weekly and will feature rock star Peter Gabriel on his work with human-rights group Witness; evolutionary anthropologist Helen Fisher exploring the future of love; X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis making the case for space tourism, “Ashes and Snow”; photographer Gregory Colbert unveiling the idea of an Animal Copyright Foundation; Seattle Library architect Joshua Prince-Ramus explaining how great architecture is made; actress Julia Sweeney performing an excerpt from her play, “Letting Go of God”; 28-year-old blogging entrepreneur Mena Trott on the personal side of blogging; and Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell on what we can all learn from spaghetti sauce.

About TED
TED is an invitation-only event where the world’s leading thinkers and doers gather for inspiration and insight. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design—three broad subject areas that are, collectively, shaping our future. In fact, the event is broader still, showcasing ideas that matter in any discipline. Attendees have called it “the ultimate brain spa” and “a four-day journey into the future.” The audience—CEOs, financiers, inventors, intellectuals—is almost as extraordinary as the speakers, who have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Quincy Jones, Frank Gehry, Herbie Hancock and Bono.

Each year, TED features 80 of the world’s most fascinating people. TED presenters run the world’s most admired companies and design its best-loved products; they invent world-changing devices, and write best-selling books. They are trusted voices and convention-breaking mavericks, icons and geniuses. Collectively, they have won every major prize awarded for excellence, including the Nobel, Pritzker, Pulitzer, Oscar, Grammy, Emmy, Tony and MacArthur “genius grant”.

TED was first held in Monterey, Calif. in 1984, and featured the launch of the Macintosh computer and the Sony compact disc. In 2001, Chris Anderson’s Sapling Foundation acquired TED from its founder, Richard Saul Wurman.

About PodZinger
PodZinger is powered by BBN Technologies, leveraging its 30 years of speech recognition research to transform multimedia content into searchable words. PodZinger opens up a previously untapped source of content via a simple Web search. Also, from the PodZinger site, users can subscribe to podcasts, download, view or listen to them, and have PodZinger deliver new podcasts on their own topics of interest using standard RSS feeds. So when it comes to finding what you want in podcasts and vodcasts…just ZING IT!

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PodZinger went shopping. And we’d like to share the goods.

We’ve just received our own PodZinger logo-emblazoned iPod covers and luggage tags. Whether you’re riding the subway, hanging out at the beach or hitting the gym, a PodZinger protector will help keep your favorite podcasts and tunes intact. And while you’re traveling this summer, there won’t be any mix-ups at the baggage carousel when your orange PodZinger bag tag screams “This is mine!”

So, in order for you to get your own PodZinger gear, tell us how you use our search engine. Maybe it’s to track your favorite celebrity or to find your own name within the thousands of podcasts. Whatever it is, let us know, and we’ll send along your PodZinger goodies. Don’t forget to note your mailing address!

Boston’s Mayor Thomas M. Menino recently launched the city’s first podcast designed to share information on services and programs. The podcasts are around 13 minutes long and are released once a month.

According to the Mayor, a lot of people in the Boston community are already using iPods and portable MP3 players so podcasting will be a good way in reaching out and communicating with the young people.

In light of this, we thought it might be fun to showcase a few “homemade” Boston-made podcasts.

Boston Behind the Scenes
A podcast featuring the scenes and events of Boston.

Boston Geek
Geeky residents of Boston who sit around, drink beer, and ruminate on the topics of the day and share their thoughts on technology/gaming news.

Wicked Good podcast
Witty observations and wacky misadventures from the heart of New England.

Best Red Sox podcast
The state of the Boston Red Sox as described by three guys from Connecticut who have it all figured out.

Original Red Sox Podcast
Dante and Todd’s true labor of love, another year in the life of their beloved Boston Red Sox via a series of podcasts showcasing their take on the glory that is the Red Sox Nation.

A bunch of Google’s premium paid video content is temporarily available for free, courtesy of a sponsor whose ad banner appears just above the video pane. In addition to the banner, there is also a post-roll ad from the same sponsor. Supposedly, there are 5 sponsors total, and they are linked to content type exclusively. I’ve seen HP, Burger King, Netflix, Shopzilla, LowerMyBills and that appears to be it. I’ve not noticed BK to be a big online sponsor, so I find this pretty interesting – they seem to have taken all the cartoons and sports videos.

Greg Sterling, founder of Sterling Market Intelligence, thinks this may be in part a response to a lack of users purchasing of the paid content. Still, the reports that I have seen place Google well behind the video leaders YouTube and MySpace.

John Batelle must have emailed Google about how it works, and it appears that Google says that Advertisers bid to sponsor individual videos. I wonder when they will actually start running contextual ads rather than having advertisers bidding on the videos themselves. Would they not at least allow bidding on keywords in the metadata soon?

Tomorrow is one of the biggest days in U.S. World Cup team history. After the loss to the Czech Republic in which the U.S. team appeared listless and apathetic, the team responded with an energetic and gutsy performance last weekend against Italy and managed a draw even though the team was down a man for the second half of the match.

For the US to advance we have to beat Ghana and hope Italy beats the Czechs. Let’s hope we hear the cry of “GOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!” early and often for the US on Thursday. I’m just a casual fan of soccer, but the World Cup manages to suck me in every time.

If you’re also hooked on the World Cup and wondering how you are going to juggle the 10:00 a.m. game with work, or are curious about how the rest of the world is experiencing the Cup, here are some Podcasts I’ve discovered that keep me up-to-speed on all the latest news and chat. The best part is I can enjoy them whenever I want and my co-workers think I’m listening to music on my iPod…

The World Soccer Daily Podcast is a syndicated show in the US on Sirius Satellite Radio and it does an excellent job of mixing daily highlights with amusing banter

If you are looking for soccer with more international flavor, check out this Spanish podcast which is all futbol, all the time. I’m not always sure what they are saying, but they certainly are excited.

Soccer Shout is based in the UK and comes with all the passion and intensity the Brits bring to the game. The episode discussing the U.S. match versus Italy is especially rousing.

Yesterday in Boston, the mercury surpassed the big 9-0 for the first time this year. Not only was that cause to bring the air conditioner out from its winter storage, it was also a clear sign that summer is here and its time to find a few good books to pass the time while lounging in the hammock, sunbathing on the beach, or flying the friendly skies to a family reunion.

I spent the weekend at the beach listening to David Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One Day on my iPod. I’ve become addicted to audiobooks and have discovered some great sites to help me find the hottest titles, latest reviews and interviews with some of my favorite authors:

SimonSays Podcast: Books and Audiobooks from Simon & Schuster

If you love books, the SimonSays Podcast is for you. Professionally produced in their Rockefeller Center studio, it features interviews with best-selling and up-and-coming authors and includes excerpts read from their audiobooks.

Audiopolis

AudioFile magazine’s editors and reviewers share reviews of selected titles using sound clips to illustrate why these audiobooks are worth your listening time. AudioFile is an independent source of audiobook views and news. As they say, they’re, “all audiobooks, all the time.”

For literary junkies still bound to books, check out the New York Times Book Review podcast, or NPR’s take on the latest titles that should find their way into your beach bag, briefcase or backpack.

Father’s Day is just a few days away. While you may have bought him that new set of golf clubs he’s been talking about, realistically you will be giving him a new tie. For those of us that can’t afford the golf clubs but would like to give something more original than a neckpiece, give him the gift of podcasts! We’ve found some great podcasts that will appeal to the fisherman or the sports fan, the do-it-yourselfer, bookworm or news junkie.

Below is a sampling of podcasts available through a simple search on PodZinger:

CNN News Update
The latest news happening in the U.S. and around the world.

ESPN Radio Podcast
The Best of ESPN Radio: Hear the best of news, opinion and commentary heard on air.

Much Ado About Books
Much Ado About Books, hosted by Laura Mills-Alcott, is the ultimate book talk radio show. Hear interviews with Heather Graham, Sandra Brown, Carly Phillips, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Diana Gabaldon, Virginia Henley, Kate Collins, Kathryn Falk and many more. With guests ranging from New York Times best-selling authors to new authors you won’t want to miss.

The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show
The Money Pit is a nationally syndicated, call-in radio show that helps listeners with their home repair and improvement questions. Hosted by Tom Kraeutler and Leslie Segrete, this show helps you take on home improvement projects from floorboards to shingles every single week. Tom and Leslie entertain, educate and inspire listeners with an encyclopedic knowledge that just plain fun to listen to. With this team you can do-it-yourself, but you really don’t have to do-it-alone.

MLB Radio Daily
A daily dose of hits from MLB Radio, the Internet’s only all-baseball radio station. This all-star lineup includes original shows, breaking news, outspoken opinion, insightful commentary and the usual shenanigans. Plus interviews with game-shapers and movers: from the players on the field to the front office brass and the media that cover them. Brought to you by MLB.

Why Fish Radio Podcast
It is our goal to share with you why you and your family should go fishing. Our goal is to help you understand the sport of fishing and the positives that can be gained from it. We want to not only tell you why you should go fishing but also teach the basics of why fish bite and how to set up for an enjoyable day on the water.

A few hours after we posted on Scoble complaining that good podcasts are hard to find, all hell breaks lose in the blogosphere with news that Scoble is leaving Microsoft and joining PodTech.

Welcome to the world of podcasting! The medium of podcasting is definitely an untapped source of information and a growing independent media that are starting to grab people’s attention.

According to BBC, Scoble’s blog was one of the top Microsoft blogs. Scoble’s friend and fellow blogger, Dave Winer states, “A person like Scoble can have enormous influence just by adopting some very simple ideas. It’s the ideas that have power.”

We are thrilled that others are getting as excited as we are about podcasting, as we see the it having great potential growing into something really significant.