Yahoo Launches Podcasting Service

Yahoo today unveiled a free podcasting service, Yahoo Podcast, that allows users to download podcasts from a wide variety of sources, including National Public Radio, independent shows, the weekly presidential radio address, Slate Magazine, and many other sources.

The site, http://podcasts.yahoo.com, also allows users to review and rate podcasts. It includes a browsable directory as well as a search function that allows users to search for podcasts.

The site also allows visitors to listen to the podcasts directly from the site, without having to download the podcast to an MP3 player. Yahoo also has plans to eventually develop and release tools to make it easier for people to create and upload their own podcasts to the site.

In future, Yahoo plans to produce its own tools to help people put together and upload their own podcasts. The Yahoo move follows a recent America Online foray into creating a podcasting site.