Nielsen//NetRatings announced today that 6.6 percent of the U.S. adult online population, or 9.2 million Web users, have recently downloaded an audio podcast. 4.0 percent, or 5.6 million Web users, have recently downloaded a video podcast.

These figures put the podcasting population on a par with those who publish blogs, 4.8 percent, and online daters, 3.9 percent. To put this in perspective, though, Nielsen notes that podcasting is not nearly as popular as paying bills online, 51.6 percent, or online job hunting, 24.6 percent.

“The portability of podcasts makes them especially appealing to young, on-the-go audiences,” said Michael Lanz, analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. “We can expect to see podcasting become increasingly popular as portable content media players proliferate,” he continued.

Rocketboom is back, with interim host Joanne Colan. In the initial Rocketboom 2.0 episode, Colan takes the rotten tomatoes of angry Rocketboom fans with a smile and handles the host chores with style and wit.

Rocketboom creator Andrew Baron, on the other hand, appears to be in a catatonic state…..

While it may not qualify as a milestone for podcasting, podcasts made the comics this week.

The Non Sequitor comic for July 19th features podcasts…..as the punchline.

The seminar schedule for the online Women’s Podcasting Expo, being held July 14-16, 2006, has been announced. Over 25 experts in women’s issues, business and online media will present over 30 seminars and podcasts.

Three (3) seminars are open to the public, including:

• “How To Create A Powerful Platform – Learn How To Consistently Out-Compete & Outperform Your Competition,” Annie Jennings of Annie Jennings PR
• “Podcasting 101 – Learn the Basics of Podcasting for Business or Pleasure,” Penny Haynes of 1st Podcast Publishing and the Family Friendly Podcasting Directory
• “How Do You Deal with Change? Women in Transformation Across Our Lifetimes,” Dr. Kathy King, Professor and Director of the RETC for Professional Development at Fordham University in New York City, and co-host of “Podcast for Teachers” and “Adventures in Transformative Learning.”

The event is a virtual expo, held online. Attendees can interact using a computer microphone and speakers or headphones.

While our first pick for the new Rocketboom host may not have panned out, it looks like the second one did. Rocketboom creator Andrew Michael Baron has confirmed Joanne Colan as the next host for the popular videoblog.We asked how he managed to find the hottest woman on the planet to be the new host for Rocketboom.

“I found her via a craigslist ad I put up,” said Baron.

Beset by bad press in the blogosphere about this past week’s launch of PodShow + and its apparent hijacking of podcasters’ RSS feeds, PodShow founder Adam Curry addresses the issue in Saturday’s episode of his podcast, Daily Source Code.He talked about being away, attending the memorial service for his mother, who passed away last weekend, and his eventful trip back home.

“When I got back, ‚Ķ I popped open the browser only to see that I was ‘evil’; I was a ‘hijacker’ and ‘stealing feeds’ and being a bad dude, and uh, there‚Äôs a couple ways I could‚Äôve gone at that point. So I looked to the heavens and said, ‘Ok mom, give me some fucking strength, because now we‚Äôre in for a ride.'”

While Rocketboom fans wait to see the debut of Joanne Colan, the former MTV host has introduced a new blog site, JoanneColan.net.Colan signs her introduction Joanne C., Host of Rocketboom.com.

Colan was originally scheduled to debut today, but a note at the site says to expect new episodes starting Tuesday, July 11th.

The Podcast Satellite Network (PSN) is offering podcasters the opportunity to purchase air time on an all-podcast satellite radio broadcast. The company plans to launch the Network in August, 2006.

According to PSN, “the Network has been created to uniquely serve the needs of podcasters looking for exposure to a significant second audience. PSN plans to meet that need by broadcasting its all-podcast lineup to all of North America via free to air (FTA) satellite radio.”

Pioneering blogger and podcaster Dave Winer is confirming the rumor we reported on yesterday – that Andrew Baron had chosen the hottest woman on the planet as the next Rocketboom host.”Andrew Baron confirmed via email this evening that the new interim host of RocketBoom is former MTV vj Joanne Colan,” said Winer. “He says that today (a weekend day on which RB doesn’t run new content) there were 1,390,661 successful page requests.”

People planning on travelling to Austin for NAMM Summer Session 2006, a music and recording industry convention being held July 14-16, should check out the Austin Connection podcast.

In the podcast, host Jeffrye Glenn Tveraas talks to some of the best songwriters and musicians in the Austin area, and captures them performing their tunes and talking about their careers and music.