In my never ending quest to find the easiest path, I like to try out different tools and applications to see if it is really easier and convenient.
I think the best criteria– at least for me, is:
A) How much effort is it to remember its there
B) How much effort is it to use
C) Do I find myself going back to it? Why?
D) Is it truly useful
Okay, you can see by my criteria, that I am a sloth, basically, and I don’t like to deviate from my busy path.
But, I am willing to be seduced by attractive features that are very cool and tickle my fancy. Such as, NPR’s and Yahoo. Npr podcasts can feed directly to your Yahoo Homepage.
NPR Podcast page. Note the subcription options for iTunes, My Yahoo and Zune.
And here you can see my podcasts on my Yahoo page.
Yahoo and NPR Hook-up
Yahoo, like every other global Internet services company of its kind, offers a personalized homepage, for free. On this homepage, you can access your Yahoo email, IM chat, news, weather etc just like the rest, but one thing stands out for me.
NPR Podcasts! NPR offers their podcasts sent directly to your Yahoo homepage like a podcast aggregate. Cool!
I stumbled upon this one day when I was browsing NPR’s Podcast directory. You can download or save to i-tunes, or to your Yahoo HomePage. How cool is that. For a public library that does not allow downloading, this is excellent news. Patrons who can’t access itunes, can access podcasts from Yahoo instead.
Also, check this out:
“Yahoo! Podcasts works great with iTunes. Use Yahoo! Podcasts to find great podcasts, then use it to subscribe to them in iTunes. You’ll need the latest version of iTunes, which you can download from Apple. Once you have iTunes installed, you can subscribe to podcasts on Yahoo! Podcasts by clicking the “Subscribe” button. After you selected “Open” in iTunes at the file dialog, iTunes will automatically recognize the .pcast file that you opened and will add your subscription to the “Podcasts” tab in iTunes.” (source http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/podcasts/podcasts-52681.html)
How much effort is it to remember its there?
Not too much effort, since its one of my email hosts and I do check my mail.
How much effort is it to use?
Very little effort, I can make it my default page if I like so that there is no effort at all.
Do I find myself going back to it? Why?
Yes I do, and not only for my mail, but for All Things Considered, and for Nancy Perl’s book reviews, and for my new Kitchen Window series I subscribed too. 
Their background textures to personalize your page aren’t too shabby either.
