More podcasting news than you can shake a stick at

If the tech world wasn’t watching Google or Yahoo today, odds are it was eyeing Apple and the release of the new version of iTunes. This is the version that officially supports podcasting, designed to make it easier to find and download podcasts.

While Apple was releasing iTunes, San Francisco search start-up blinkx was readying its podcast and video blogging search tool. Blinkx is the search company that has made a name for itself with its technology that converts raw audio to text transcripts. That allows the company to index the content of video and audio files and make them searchable. So if you wanted to find a podcast that referenced artificial intelligence, for example, blinkx would theoretically allow you to find it. The podcast search goes live tomorrow at www.blinkx.tv.

Blinkx founder Suranga Chandratillake told us last week that the company will be indexing hundreds of podcasts, adding the content to its searchable index within an hour or less after it finds it, in many cases.

Blinkx is also working with Odeo, the still-not-launched San Francisco start-up that hopes to be a one-stop shop for podcasting creation and discovery. Chandratillake said blinkx will provide technology that allows Odeo uers to create transcripts of their podcasts.