The latest entrant in the podcast directory / social podcast community space launched this week. PodShow comes to the table with generous funding and the strong pedigree of podcasting pioneer Adam Curry.

Their offering is a very strong hybrid of a podcast directory and MySpace-like social networking site. Unregistered users to the site can browse through a large directory of podcasts and sample content. Registered users get access to social networking functions like friend lists, commenting, sharing content and user photo galleries.

PodShow is built from the ground up as a vertically integrated site meant to keep the user on the PodShow platform. The platform itself serves up a healthy amount of advertising. Several advertisers are prominently featured including Go Daddy, Acura and Shell Oil. Advertisements are delivered via banners in the pages and in the media players that pop up to allow the user to sample podcast shows.

And although you will find a healthy directory of podcasts on PodShow, the most prominently presented podcasts are those owned by PodShow followed by mainstream media podcasts the likes of MTV, Newsweek and NPR.

The Podshow approach represents a more direct path to revenue than the approach taken by other communities like Odeo, Pluggd and Blubrry. Unfortunately the user experience suffers in the process. All of the pages look the same and it can be very confusing to the user as to which podcast they are actually looking at. And the links to actually play podcast shows are the smallest ones on the site.

The subscription process is a bit confusing as well as the site provides no guide on exactly how to do so. The site also fails to provide any kind of a primer on podcasting that would help newbies to understand what the medium is all about. Frankly, this is a shortcoming of many of the existing podcasting directories.

If you are a business looking to get started in podcasting this is definitely not the place to have a presence. Your brand and your message will easily get lost in the shuffle of advertising and heavy social networking features.

[tags]Social Media, Podcasting, Podshow, Networking, Podcast Directory, Launch[/tags]