According to the Anarchogeek weblog there are only ten bugs left to hammer out before Odeo can be released. So maybe well see this new service arriving before Independence Day (July 4th) here in the U.S. Meanwhile, the Odeo beta continues. In the past few weeks I've seen hits from Odeo in my server logs. It seems that they're using tags to identify podcasts which certainly makes good sense.

Odeo promises to provide people with a platform to Sync, Listen to and Create podcasts. But will they revolutionize podcasting? Will Odeo help to take podcasting to the next level? Perhaps. If Odeo is hosting content and can combine several very important features to create a one stop shop then they just might change things. Right now I'm using Libsyn as a file host because they offer unlimited bandwidth. I'm using a traditional web host (Namesecure) to host the pages on my site and provide advanced features that enhance the user experience. I'm using Blogger to generate web pages because it's very simple to manage and customize. And since Blogger doesn't create RSS feeds with enclosures (Anyone have a clue why they don't?) I'm using Feedburner to add enclosures to my feeds as well as providing statistics. I'm also using AudioBlog to for mobile podcast recording and video blogging. Finally, I'm using OnFolio to manage all of my RSS subscriptions, including podcasts.

So as a heavy podcaster I'd like to see a service that combines all of those features into a single account managed on the web. I'd also like a way to capture the RSS feed information locally for the times when I'm traveling and can't connect to a web. So maybe we're talking about and Odeo lite desktop client. I'd pay $30 t0 $35 a month for the services mentioned providing they include hosting for at least 500MB per month and unlimited bandwidth.

Oh and there's one more feature that could put Odeo over the top in the world of podcasting. I've heard that they plan to give podcasters the ability to charge for their content. If Odeo has a feature that allows a person to designate certain content as "premium" and either handle payment or integrate with PayPal then Odeo could be very big indeed. This would make their service into an eBay for podcasting, where they play middle man and take a cut on sales. That's a very profitable space to be in and a very welcome feature for podcasters who plan on trying to charge for content.