³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Podcast Directory relaunch
Post categories: podcasts
| 17:44 UK time, Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Today is a big day for the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ audio podcast service, as we've relaunched the central Podcast Directory. The Directory makes it easier than ever to browse the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s full range of podcasts and there are a few new features to play with.
The main idea behind the site is to make it as easy as possible for listeners to find podcasts that'll be right for them - whether you're into a particular station or genre, want to search for a specific podcast, or just want content that's the perfect length for your journey into work, then the new site should work for you. I'll mention a couple of the highlights here, but I'd definitely encourage you to have a play with the site to see all the options and features that are now on offer.
If you're interested in finding out which podcasts are new, or in the limelight, then the new Recently Launched and Editor's Picks selections might be for you, and you can hover over the images to find out more about each series.
If you're pretty sure which podcast you want, but are not quite sure what it's called then you could try the clever new search box. As you type it auto-suggests podcast titles which feature those words, and will even suggest a whole category of podcasts that might be of interest.
If you fancy more of a browse then you can now drill down by radio station, genre, or a combination of both.
So you could request to see all Sports podcasts from 5 live that are about Football, or see what Radio 1 offer in the News category. Any podcasts that meet your criteria will appear below the filters, and you can then arrange them based on which is the most recently updated, or longest/shortest. Once you've found a podcast that you're interested in you can hover over it to find out more, or click through to the full page for that series.
The podcast pages themselves now offer more info and functionality than before.
The biggest new development is that you can now play any available episodes in the page, in addition to being able to download them, or follow the steps to subscribe to the series.
This page also now recommends other podcast series you might like, as well as links to relevant pages elsewhere on bbc.co.uk.
There are Help links throughout the site, and a fun new Short Introduction to Podcast video for people who want a simple overview.
On a more technical note (look away now if you're faint of heart), the directory is built on the new Forge platform. Forge supports dynamic, database-driven services rather than static page-based services and an infrastructure that includes new hardware, systems and updated technology. All this is good news for the developers; and those maintaining and updating the podcast directory. Hopefully, the end users get a better experience too!
This site has been built by a great project team in FM&T for Audio & Music, with significant input from Jim Downie in my team. They've really enjoyed building it, so I hope you'll now enjoy using it!
Let me know what you think, as we're hoping to continue to develop the site over the course of the year and would appreciate your feedback.
Sarah Prag is Executive Producer, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Audio & Music Interactive
Comment number 1.
At 15th Apr 2009, Stuart Ian Burns wrote:Any chance of combined RSS feeds based on radio station, genre, or a combination of both?
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Comment number 2.
At 15th Apr 2009, Darren wrote:Looks good, was actually excited to use it, however in IE8, cant seem to get much to work, minimize editors picks and search results links dont work.
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Comment number 3.
At 15th Apr 2009, Darren wrote:mmm, its actually working now, not sure how.
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Comment number 4.
At 15th Apr 2009, suileabhan wrote:On the whole, I like what's been done. The only thing that seems odd is the default sort option, which is by last update. I find this unintuitive and would prefer it if alphabetical sorting was the default.
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Comment number 5.
At 16th Apr 2009, Joe Halliday wrote:Very nice. :)
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Comment number 6.
At 16th Apr 2009, hmsberlin wrote:Off topic, but something i've always wondered. Why are your urls case sensitive? Eg. /BLOGS/³ÉÈËÂÛ̳INTERNET returns a 404.
No need surely, and it must be a common mistake?
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Comment number 7.
At 16th Apr 2009, Keith wrote:#6 I suspect the bbc website is hosted on a non-Windows server (eg. Linux). Generally Windows servers allow for case-insensitive URLs, whilst Linux servers are case-sensitive. Hope that makes some sense.
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Comment number 8.
At 16th Apr 2009, maethorechannen wrote:Could you expose the directory as OPML? That way I should be able to add the directory to the Nokia N95's Podcast app, which would save me from having to enter the urls on the keypad.
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Comment number 9.
At 20th Apr 2009, djmarland wrote:OPML is available for the podcasts directory
/podcasts/opml
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Comment number 10.
At 22nd Apr 2009, directs wrote:how do i get download podcasts of radio 2 programs that are not listed or is it not possible.
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Comment number 11.
At 17th Jan 2010, Amanda Hughes-Horan wrote:Just wanted to say how much I thoroughly enjoy all of your wonderful podcasts. I've watched the "podcasting end" develop over the last few years from the early days when you really only had the choice of a few programmes to the great array that you have today.
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I really love to download a selection of programmes to last me the week as I drive!
Best regards
Amanda Hughes-Horan
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