Tech Watch | InfoWorld Staff | InfoWorld | RIP Audioblogger. Long live a-blogging | October 6, 2006 11:19 AM

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RIP Audioblogger. Long live a-blogging

October 06, 2006 | Comments: (0)

RIP Audioblogger. Long live a-blogging

Audioblogger sent a form e-mail to say it was going away as of Nov. 1, but the happy from the sad note was that it brought audioblogging back on my radar.

More good news: Free audioblogging via telephone is going strong still -- just from other companies.

Audioblogger's suggestions:

Gabcast.com is a free service for recording by phone

Hipcast.com has a seven day free trial and lots of features

Gcast.com is another free service for phone recording

Why the interest in a blast from the recent past-tech? The last time I came across audioblogging, I was look at it for a daily newspaper's Web site -- as any easy way for local and far-flung field reporters to file audio news reports over any phone.

Here's my note from today to my boss about audioblogging at InfoWorld.com: "The thing is that it is not great audio, but the rawness might be accepted as part of the rapid-fire journalism style that is evolving -- it just cuts out all the production overhead and gets it live fast."

The time has come, I reckon.

I think video online is only worth the time if telling a story with moving pictures that cannot be told with just words. It also works well for showcasing a new cell phone, a la CNET. But the talking head thing is just a bandwidth and time waster.

Audioblogging and podcasts can be built more easily -- InfoWorld Editor at Large Ephraim Schwartz told me today he was going to start using his digital recorder for inteviews and I said we'd slice and dice it for InfoWorld.com. Too easy. Audioblogging is just one step easier, really.

And you can listen to them and simultaneously browse the Web.

Now for the e-mail (Attn: Audioblogger users):

Hello,
As of November 1, 2006, Audioblogger will no longer accept phone
calls. MP3s made with the service will continue to be hosted and
served but you will no longer be able to use Audioblogger to post
new audio.

Audioblogger is an independent product, run by Odeo, Inc., a small
startup company in San Francisco, CA. We are not affiliated with
Google or Blogger except that we operate and provide the
Audioblogger service.

Given our limited resources, we have to make tough decisions
about what projects to focus on. And we've come to the difficult
decision that Audioblogger demands too many resources, time, and
money for us to continue its operation.

However, there are several other services that offer similar
functionality. Odeo is not affiliated with any of these services,
we only suggest them only in hopes that one or the other will be
a good alternative for you.

All of the phone posting services listed above are compatible
with Odeo in that they produce podcast feeds, which can be
imported to Odeo. Any audio file at Odeo can be posted on a blog
by copying and pasting some embed code.

Odeo would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has
tried Audioblogger. If you are interested in keeping up with our
other blog-friendly projects, please have a look at Twitter.com
and our customizable audio players.

Thanks,
The Odeo Team