This new service from Yahoo will allow people to easily search podcasts through keyword, categories or tagging, which is user-generated topic coding.

Listen or subscribe to RSS feeds for shows or episodes of programming or entire series – this is what users can get from Yahoo.
Geoff Ralston, Yahoo’s chief product officer said that Yahoo will introduce tools that will allow people to create their own podcasts. Other tools like highlighting podcasts by notes, popularity and user recommendations and ratings will also be available in the beta version of the site.

Similar services are already offered by AOL and Blinkx.

Podcasting is a method of publishing audio programs via the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed of new files (usually MP3s). It became popular in late 2004, largely due to automatic downloading of audio onto portable players or personal computers. Podcasting is distinct from other types of online media delivery because of its subscription model, which uses a feed (such as RSS or Atom) to deliver an enclosed file. Podcasting enables independent producers to create self-published, syndicated “radio shows,” and gives broadcast radio programs a new distribution method. Listeners may subscribe to feeds using “podcatching” software (a type of aggregator), which periodically checks for and downloads new content automatically.