Last week. Dave Winer launched a new website called Podcatch. Winer is considered to be one of the “inventors” of podcasting, as he is the one who created the RSS 2.0 specification that gave us the all-important media enclosure tag. Winer explained how Podcatch works on his blog:

It’s a quick way to find a great podcast to listen to, now. Without subscribing.

The list of feeds is curated, it originated from the feeds my Facebook friends liked the most. In that I think it’s a prototype for how social networks can be used to create new flows that aren’t complicated or hard to use or appreciate.

Winer then detailed how Podcatch is built on open source software, including a list of the tools/services he used to create the site.

The Podcatch site itself is a no-frills affair that pulls in specific episodes from different podcast feeds, including truncated descriptions, inline media players, download links, podcast website and source RSS feed links. Clicking the comment bubbles under each post will allow you to share Podcatch posts to your Facebook timeline.

Winer explained further in another blog post why he wanted to build Podcatch. The TL;DR version is that he wanted an easier way to find new podcasts to listen to. He turned to his Facebook friends to provide suggestions, and Podcatch aggregates those suggestions. It’s an intriguing idea and I’m sure a lot of people would love to create their own Podcatch feeds. Right now, there doesn’t seem to be any way to do that. No word as to whether or not Winer will open the technology up for others to use.

Until then, you can peruse Podcatch and see if anything appeals to you.