Popular
podcasting site Odeo has announced a comprehensive
re-launch and expansion under a new development team.
Odeo?s newly
designed website has bought new added features, including 500,000 themed
channels, personalised recommendations and improved search functionality. Findings can be sorted into playlists for
future reference, and a subscription option ensures that new episodes of
interest will not be missed. The biggest
development for Odeo and its community is the addition of video.
Rick
Arturo, president of Odeo?s parent company Sonic Mountain, sums up the aim of
the relaunching exercise, saying, "With so many sources of syndicated
content online, our team set out to create a simplified media experience that
really helps users find and manage quality content.? He believes that they have succeeded in the
endeavour, expressing the view that "the result is an improved Odeo
experience that still retains what the original team envisioned, while adding
the most requested features of video and enhanced search."
The
social dimension of the website has also been strengthened. Users can now create a personal profile page
through which they can interact with friends. Sharing is enabled further via e-mail and the
possibility of embedding content on blogs, third-party websites or other social
networking sites.
Evan
Williams, founder of Odeo, Blogger and co-founder of Twitter says, ?I?m really
excited to see this relaunch of Odeo. The new team has done a fantastic job of re-imagining
how to offer a great user experience to a wide variety of interesting
content."
Odeo?s
free tool suite for podcast producers, Odeo Studio, is in the process of being
integrated with the main website, which will allow users to voice their
comments to producers in audio and video format. Other new social-oriented functionalities are
also in the pipeline, such as synchronization with mobile devices and more
streamlined embedding of audio and video for social networks.
Finally, Odeo
has announced new partnerships with a number of online media networks including
Blip.tv, NextNewNetworks and Revision3, as well as integration with the network
of MatchKey supporting sites.