On Sept. 13, I asked Tidbits readers for input on a standard way that news providers could help people find news content on mobile devices.
In a comment to that post, Travis Smith of Hop Studios offered what I think was the most logical suggestion: m.<yourdomain>.com. The idea behind that approach is that the less you have to hunt and peck out letters on a small device, the better. I really like it.
Consequently, next week Poynter Online will add m.poynter.org as a redirect to our mobile site next week. I hope others emulate our example. A rising tide lifts all boats.
…On another standard issue, on Sept. 22, Leo Laporte suggested on his blog TWIT TV that we change our collective use of the word “podcast” to “netcast” before Apple sends us all letters.
I agree with him, but I’m sorry to say I’m not sold on netcast. “Net” is redundant for an Internet technology, and “cast” implies that it is sent to everyone like a TV or radio broadcast. I’m afraid the non-technical won’t know what it means without being told anyway.
And while we’re at it, let’s fill out the whole multimedia set as far as terms go. I propose we use the terms:
- Textfeed
- Soundfeed
- Photofeed
- Videofeed
A “feed” is something one subscribes to and consumes. I think laypeople would get a good idea of what those are without explanation.
