Looks like podcasting support . . . but not so fast.

The Media Player 11 beta was released to the public, myself included, a couple of months ago. There has been not chatter or discussion over a glaring omission from the functionality of MP11 . . . no RSS support! Which means no podcast support or Microsoft podcast directory.

Maybe this is part of some super secret plan for the full release to include support for RSS and a bang up podcast directory. Whatever the reason for not including RSS, podcasts and a podcast directory into MP11 beta is beyond me.

Free non-DRM content both audio and video is waiting to be plucked from the internet by a new audience. An audience that is afraid of iTunes and less tech saavy than a user of Odeo, Melodeo or Juice is a fresh market, an eager market. Not to mention the boost that it would give to podcasters and the DIY media movement. Guess that isn't in the interest of Microsoft.

That is the part that confuses me most. You see, Internet Explorer 7 beta supports RSS with a brilliant XSL stylesheet to display the feeds. To boot, it recognizes the enclosure tag and creates a link for the media. The new MS Office beta supports RSS also. And every thirty minutes I get a hit on two of my RSS feeds from an agent that identifies itself as "Microsoft Research" and believe it or not the IP resolves to Microsoft.

So what gives? No clue.

I hope they have something big up their sleeves. They have an opportunity to blow podcasting and DIY media wide open and bring that content to new audiences. With this beta they have failed and let us all down. I say this not only as a content producer but a user. I really wanted to like MP11

Oh yeah, before I forget, MP11 has a great new addition to it's system scanning for media . . . it aggregates all non-DRM content from your iTunes library. So it is sort of like podcasting support, you just need to use iTunes first.

Greg from Viva Podast just sent me a link to a version of George Bush singing, well speaking, the lyrics to U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday. Someone worked pretty hard on this video.

The best part is to think of the speech writer, a bitter and sharp witted english major who actually wrote some of these phrases wholly into speaches. Or this writer lifted them to meet a deadline, but either way it funny and creepy.

Thanks to everyone who entered our contest for the iPod. As contests go, there could be only one winner. That winner is Jeanette Holden. Jeanette had a horrible vacation, lived to tell about it and crafted a well delivered story.

It was really hard to choose a winner because so many of the entries were amazing. There are some of you who should be writing for a living! And if any of you are writers, shame on you for entering our contest ;-). Kidding . . . only kidding.

Jeanette, your specially engraved iPod will be coming in the mail soon! We expect to see some photos of it. Thanks again to everyone. And . . . and, thank you for listening to the show and sharing your lives with us too.

This is on the business tip and recommended reading for anyone interested in RSS, podcasting and the future of business online.

Kudos to our friends at FeedBurner for their press coverage in Business 2.0. The article, "Redefining the RSS feed", is a brief walk on the FeedBurner timeline, a bit of strategy and a nice couple paragraphs about the 800 lb gorilla known as Google with FeedBurner CEO, Dick Costolo.

Just like those 'Going out of Business' sales, this contest too, shall come to an end. The contest for the Black 30gb iPod also know as "My Vacation Sucked Too!" ends tonight at 11:59 PST.

To enter just send and email to vacations@croncast.com with your horrible vacation details. Preferred format is a short story, of course. Read more about the contest.