Scouta Releases Windows Client that Recommends Media Using iTunes

Scouta releases today a Windows client for generating video and audio recommendations based on the podcasts and videocasts in a user’s iTunes collection. This release comes just over a month after the company released a Mac version to do pretty much the same thing.

To use the client, all you have to do is install and configure it with your Scouta user account and set the frequency at which you want it to sync with your iTunes collection. Be sure to have some podcasts in iTunes before trying this out; otherwise it’s pretty pointless (it won’t recommend content based on your music collection alone).

The client will also only create recommendations using the podcasts and videocasts you’ve actually listened to or watched. Once recommendations are generated, users can tweak them by manually rating content in the Scouta web interface.

If you only casually consume podcasts, Scouta may be overkill and not worth the time to set up (even though the process is pretty dead simple). Personally, I discover enough online content through emails from friends and by simply browsing sites like YouTube and the iTunes catalog. But, if you love discovering new content online, this client could come in very handy.

MOG, iLike, and Last.fm also provide content recommendation systems that integrate with iTunes, except they focus on music and not general media.

The screenshot below provides a view of the Scouta recommendation interface.

MediaWhiz Latest Ad Network For Sale?

, a holding company for a number of advertising networks, may be shopping itself to private equity firms. We are hearing that they are looking for $400- $450 million, which is 2.5 - 3 times estimated 2007 revenues.

MediaWhiz owns a number of ad networks, including two that are long time sponsors of this site (Text Link Ads and Auction Ads). Both were recently acquired by MediaWhiz.

I have an email in to the company for comment.

Ad networks are the hot commodity this year, with AOL, Yahoo, Google and Microsoft all making big acquisitions. The size of those deals combined is nearly $10 billion.