Podcasting Is Dead?

I only see the adoption of podcast growing and agree it is still early days, but it must continue to improve. In this economy, it is getting tougher for companies to invest in better podcasting platforms. The progression of podcasting may be stunted for a few years until the economy starts to come back.

Any decline of podcasting is only bad for independent content creators as the big media companies are still mainly only experimenting with it today.

Going to have to argue with you on this one - but will certainly publish your arguments.

People are looking for the term "podcast" than they're looking for the term new media, social media, etc.

My point is only, don't count Podcasting out.

Paul

You are looking at search trends. People don't search for "new media", "social media", or "online video". They search for "facebook", "Youtube", "video", "blog", "podcast" and "myspace". That gives you totally different results (which based on your original premise might mean podcasting is dead).

http://snipurl.com/podcast-video-facebook

The terms you used are jargon, and people don't use jargon, only someone who is trying to sound important uses jargon. Getting stuck on jargon means you don't understand your users (unless your users are other self important people who use jargon too, which is fine.)

Paul,

Maybe the people who claim podcasting is dead hope to lead a trend thereby enhancing their stature for their ability to predict trends. I remember listening to you and Alex Mandossian on a podcast discussing audio podcasting versus video. Audio fulfills a niche nothing else does. When I'm driving and when I'm exercisiing, I enjoy learning by listening to podcasts. Moreover, while I could listen to talk radio, I have no control over the topics. With podcasting, I can select the material I want to listen to. Fortunately for people like me, there are an abundance of great podcasts. Thank you for contributing to my knowledge base!

This doesn't surprise me a bit--only because I just started subscribing to the Delicious feed for the word "podcasting" and I get a dozen new items coming in every hour, people bookmarking the really basic intro stuff. (Lots and lots of education-focused pages, too.) Now is a fine time to be a podcasting consultant.

speaking as a newbie to the world of pocasts and video podcasts I can say that we are still at the beginning! I only recently got my sons cast off ipod as he got a new nano free with a macbook. I have found it so easy to keep up to date with my interests by subscribing to various podcasts (including yours Paul!) I am working on a device which helps artists to draw, so it has to be visually presented. I will be releasing it within a month or 2 and am exited by the marketing opportunities 'web 2.0' offers. Also I have read quite few books, and I am NOT going to patent the device,and encourage others to make it for their own use, or start a business making them! I will maintain a list of recommended 'makers' and ask for a small percentage, only when they sell the item. Risky? Maybe! but exiting...

Paul,

I could not agree with you more. I've been against those who proposed we use another word other than podcasting from the beginning. I check my analytics and they show that people are searching for the term "podcast" along with the key words of the podcasts that I produce all the time.

In fact, I'm starting to see a trend where more people find me through Google searching than through iTunes these days!

Of course Michael Geohegan and I debated this topic in episode #90 of Podcast Answer Man. He suggests that it is dead and I disagreed with him.
http://podcastanswerman.com/090-podcast-answer-man-podcasting-is-dead-i-disagree-a-talk-with-michael-w-geoghegan/

In Episode #91 we had a panel discussion with myself, Adam Curry, Grammer Girl, and many others who were all to happy to share the successes we've found in podcasting and where we see the future of Podcasting!
http://podcastanswerman.com/091-podcast-answer-man-the-future-of-podcasting/