News.com: Shhh, don't say the p-word! is false
Here’s another one for Snopes.com. News.com Blog notes:
Using the term “podcast” is a big faux-pas in Redmond, according to a recent Seattle Post-Intelligencer story.
Podcasting is all the rage among the Internet-savvy. It involves downloading audio programs from the Web and listening to them on a computer or portable digital music player like Apple’s iPod, whose popularity helped give rise to the trend.
But the folks at Microsoft, which developed a digital music format that competes with Apple’s, apparently bristle at the term. Employees for the company have taken to using the word “blogcast,” instead.
Let’s separate hype from reality. What’s Microsoft’s position on the term podcasting? Well, I’m not an official spokesperson but let’s dig deeper using a novel feature called Microsoft.com search:
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www.wmplugins.com. Microsoft-run site. Look at the top toolbar- what does it say? Podcasting! Yes, that’s a Microsoft site saying it. Guess what, I helped make that happen. I still work here and use the term… but let’s dig deeper.
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WMPlugins Editor’s Corner. Whoah. A whole Guest Editorial on listening to Podcasts by Jake Ludington, author of the Podcasting Starter Kit and a Microsoft Digital Media MVP. WAIT! He’s the producer of The Chris Pirillo Show too! The same Chris Pirillo referred to in the Seattle P-I article!
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TechEd Official MS.com site. Wow. “Getting Started with Podcasts” is the title.
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Windows Mobile Official Site. Now who would want to listen to a Podcast on your Windows Mobile device? Maybe we should call them MobileCasts? No…
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Xbox 360 Press Release. “To listen to a podcast or watch video of the keynote, go to http://www.xbox.com”. Rats, not again…
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On my blog! Where I even have a category for Podcasting and have been using the term for better part of a year.
The Seattle P-I raises the issue that others (in particular, Chris Pirillo) don’t like the term. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
I spent six years in digital media at Microsoft and even wrote the foreword to Paul Thurrott’s book on the topic in XP back in the day.
Big faux pas? C’est non, merci! in my interactions. I have another one – I wonder if Jake Ludington will be fired by Chris Pirillo for writing a book and not calling it Podcasting? (Both really good guys and you should listen to their show.)
