Simply said, podcasting is a method of publishing audio content to the Internet using the RSS feed as the syndication channel. Users subscribe to the feed, which delivers metadata related to the audio content like title, summary/ description, link to the audio file, size, file format, etc.

Podcasting also defines the process of downloading audio content from podcast RSS feed to client’s desktop of media device.

The first definition involves the publication of audio, which the second relates to the download process. They are usually used in different but self-explanatory contexts. Like in this blog, if the occurrence of the terms can cause confusion, I tried to explain which one I referred to.

Now that podcasting goes mainstream, we expect many new terms invented by the community. People now use the term podcatching to refer to the process of downloading podcast audio content from the Internet. Podcatcher is the client side software used to download podcasts.

The synonyms for podcatcher include podcast client, podcasting client, podcatching software and podcast aggregator.

I also began to see occurences of podcastosphere, the podcast equivalent for blogosphere from the blog glossary.

Podcasting doesn’t have to do with audio content but also video, image and other multimedia files, but when it comes to video people again invented more confusing terms around it.

Video podcasting, vidcasting, vodcasting are all the words for podcasting but for video. The same number of ways available to call the feed involved in audio and video podcasts.

Some would call it podcast feed, others prefer podcast RSS feed. Of course, vidcast feed, vidcast RSS feed, vodcast feed, vodcast RSS feed, video podcast feed and video podcast RSS feed all refer to the same thing.

Confused already? Don’t be. They are really simple if you read carefully.

See also: Podcast Tutorial.

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