The fellas from The 404 -- CNET’s smash daily podcast hosted by Jeff Bakalar, Wilson Tang and Justin Yu -- join take over the show to talk about doing their show every day, the future of the industry and why the people at Wikipedia hate them.

I was on their show about a month ago (you can listen to it here) so I am happy to return the favor.

We start by introducing the The 404. Basically their show is a look at the internet and technology from a somewhat skewed perspective. CNET has about 20 different podcasts, covering everything from cell phones to other gadgets to straight tech talk. The 404 is an amalgam of all that information, but much funnier and nowhere near as serious. And that’s what makes it a good listen.

The show is streamed online via ustream.tv every day at 11am, then podcasted for easy downloading. But the three hosts have other responsibilities at CNET, so we discuss what each person does to, you know, sustain a living.

And that’s the thing we get into next. Right now, people are still trying to figure out how to make money off of new media. Smart companies realize that podcasts and online video can be a loss leader to get exposure for the people on the shows and drive traffic to the site, hoping that the traffic checks out other things while there. But at some point the bottom line has to come into play. Sure, shows make money and some do quite well, but nobody has really tapped into the potential that online content provides.

Working for parent-company CBS, I ask if there is more pressure from the higher-ups to make this something viable. We’ve been asked on our show, so I posed the question to them -- what is the future of this business. Are we it?

We learn that The 404 will be doing to a video podcast very soon, with much better cameras more dynamic content, right from their studio. Pretty awesome.

The 404 has a very dedicated listenership, and many of them watch the show live and converse in their chat room during the show. We talk about the balance between catering to a small yet dedicated following when compared to a much larger overall audience. What the chat room might like isn’t necessarily what the average listener will like. I ask if they ever struggle with finding a medium.

Unlike our show -- where the guests are really the stars -- Jeff, Wilson and Justin are the stars of their show. I wonder if there is more pressure when people are tuning in every day specifically for them. I know that doing the show twice a week has proven to be quite daunting, so I wonder if doing a daily show, coupled with their other responsibilities, has become a grind. How do they keep it fresh and how do they manage to simply walk back in the studio every day.

We end with some tech talk, including the Padres pitcher who lost 25 pounds using Wii Fit. Does it really work? Does anyone use the Wii Fit or is it just another fad gimmick gaming item? Now, obviously someone is using it if the story we reference had a guy losing weight with the Wii Fit, but it speaks to the larger point that people spend all this money on things when they could just go run, walk, yoga (can one ‘yoga’) swim or dance themselves. And speaking of dance, the guys bring up Dance Dance Revolution, and how some people go to arcades to burn a few calories while cutting their digital rugs. I’m not sure I’d ever want someone seeing me doing calisthenics in public. And how is any of this different than the old Nintendo Power Pad?

Oh, and poop jokes.

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