Here's an Odeo screen shot. Folks are jumping up and down about Odeo. They're in the media stream, so to speak. And they seem to be a lightning rod, too.

Todd Cochrane claimed that Odeo was creating custom RSS feeds, amounting to a podcast hijack.

Showing how sensitive they are to this sort of furor in the podcast world, the folks at Odeo quickly responded.

That shows a lot. They're listening. But Cochrane makes a good point in his follow up post. He says that people should be more concerned about this practice.

Re-directing RSS feeds is a hot issue. Dave Winer has been critical of Feedburner for creating custom feeds from the original feeds people provide when using the Feedburner service.

Recently, Feedburner developed a redirect method. Here is excerpt from their June 10 blog:

"So, beginning today, we're providing a detailed service for publishers who choose to leave FeedBurner. When you delete your FeedBurner feed, we have added an option to redirect your feed. If you select this, we begin a one month process of transitioning your subscribers back to your source feed. This is the interesting part; because of the very different capabilities of the different feed readers, we have to take a few different approaches."

As more business interests get into podcasting, look for this issue to keep showing itself. People will be sensitive about keeping their feed address as it will be a measure of traffic and a factor in brand awareness. And for many folks, that RSS feed is a sign of identity.

This seems to be the big issue that will hit us over the next few months. As the big guns emerge, services like Odeo will be portals for podcasts. Who will get the brand attention?

Will the services essentially swallow up any recognition for the independents? And if they do, what does that mean for the long term vitality of this fresh and vibrant form of radio?