It’s an old, ongoing argument that I can’t ignore.
Mark Ramsey, president of hear2.0, thinks that podcasting has a bad name, and thinks we should change the name to (drum roll)……………audiomag.
“Podcast is, when you think about it, an absolutely horrible name for the technology,” writes Ramsey. “We don’t watch a TVcast, we watch a TV show. We don’t listen to a Radiocast, it’s a radio show or a radio station. And much of podcast listening isn’t even done on an mp3 player, let alone an iPod.” [podcastingnews]
Audiomag? I don’t think so. If the name is going to change, then it has to be something completely new, not to mention better than a fusing of two words. Seriously, who does stuff like that?
Google[wiki] is the example I keep coming back to. We don’t search for anything on the internet now. Either you “Google it” or “look it up when you get home”. More often then none, I bet you will Google something before you say you did a search. That’s the power of a name and a brand.
Podcasting[wiki] is an argued name, but I haven’t heard anything better. The issue of the word “pod” being linked to the Apple product brand is understandable, but remember that “radio” used to be called “wireless” until some one else came along with something better. Wireless means something completely different today, but what would we call that if we we still called radio by its maiden name?
smith?