This article caught my eye this morning. Terry Heaton is someone I pay close attention to in cycles, depending on what trends I'm following and what he's writing about.

Podcasting comes of age (or not)
In September of 2004,
Doc Searls noted 526 “finds” in a Google search for the word
“podcasting.” The creation of Dave Winer’s was just beginning to find
traction with geeks back then, but, oh my, how times have changed.

A current search of the word on Google reveals 38 million finds. Not bad for just a couple of years.

But here’s something that really made me sit up and take notice. Friday night’s episode of the CBS drama NUMB3RS
contained an important reference to podcasting. The bad guy was one of
those religious survivalists who was on the run and communicated with
his flock by, you guessed it, podcasting. I was just amazed, and I
imagined people in living rooms around the country shaking their heads
and saying, “Martha, what did he say? What the hell is ‘podcasting?’”

Key stat: only about 20% of podcasts are actually downloaded for use in a player. This caught my eye as I do a fair number of podcasts here at times. I'm curious, do you download to listen in an iPod or other MP3 player, or do you listen online through your PC? Comments appreciated.

FWIW, I normally listen to podcasts at my PC while I'm working. When I head out on the road, like I am tomorrow, I tend to load several up onto my LifeDrive, Treo, N93 and N80i for listening on the plane or during airport delays.


Technorati Tags: podcasting trends, Terry Heaton