Rather, the interesting bit is that they’re streaming audio podcasts directly from the web. No Zune required. No Zune PC software required. No login required. Just go to the site, find the podcast you want to hear, and hit the play button. For instance, here’s one of my favorites, The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe. There’s nothing to download. Yes, it works in Firefox (I didn’t even try it in IE, for that matter).

This is in contrast to the music, which you have to be signed in (and maybe a Zune subscriber?) to listen to. For instance, if you follow this link to 21st Century Breakdown, the Play buttons don’t work unless you sign in.

I think that’s pretty cool. The Zune marketplace has a pretty good library of video and audio podcasts, and it’s growing steadily. The ability to instantly and easily play any audio podcast right from the web is, frankly, a nice handout from the Zune folks. They could have easily put this behind a wall to, as marketing likes to say, “add value” to the Zune Pass or some such nonsense. Apple requires you to access its podcast directory, and for that matter its music directory, through iTunes. But podcasts are out there all over the place for free. A tip of the hat for getting this one right, guys. Are you paying attention, Apple?