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Podshow, where I produce Tech5 and do No Agenda with Adam Curry has changed its name to Mevio which I consider catchy and suggestive, which is what you want in a name. It’s suggestive of “me” and “video” and even “voice-over” or “V.O.”
This name change is part of a long process where the major podcasters of the world have long since given up on the prefix “pod” since most of these productions are played on computers or burned to CD’s with only perhaps a third actually downloaded onto music players. Even Leo LaPorte has moaned about the “pod” moniker and he calls all his productions “netcasts.” While I personally have no issue with the podcast moniker since I like the esoteric, the Podshow name itself was even more vague in the end and had to go. One bonus is that Mevio simply sounds more hip, more Web 2.0. When I say I’m a VP at Mevio I know the response will be that of intrigue. When asked what do they do at Mevio I’ll try not to say “podcasting.”
:)
Too many syllables. Any more than 2 is too many.
Even the internet didn’t catch on until it was called “The Net.”
I don’t record TV on my Digital Video Recorder I record it on my TiVo even if the brand isn’t really TiVo.
The only reason VCRs got away with three syllables is that we had more free time back then.
I listen to Leo a lot. He says podcast much more often than he says netcast. I think he’s about given up on that little war.
#27.”Perhaps the reason why Podshow hasn’t been amazingly successful had nothing to do with the name and a lot to do with the site is virtually unusable. I’ve tried getting content directly from the site and ended up searching Google for a stand alone feed. In one case, I gave up entirely.”
You definitely have a point about the site being non-intuitive. It took me some time to figure out how to simply downland the mp3. Sorry John, it was a mess.
i love leo, but he gets onto the weirdest things. remember how he “left” twitter? he’s now discusses twitter for literally months. history may very well write TWiT as a footnote twitter and not vice-versa.
somehow i don’t buy the supposed success of podshow.
has anyone listened to curry’s daily source code? what the hell IS that?
one last thing: autoplay should be deprecated
I’m getting pretty sick of these silly, made-up web 2.0 names. Hulu was about the last one I was able to stomach.
I believe “podcast” is here for keeps. And without citing any references, I believe the phenomena is still in its explosive growth stage. Certainly the public would have absolutely no clue what you are talking about if you went to anything other than “podcast” as a description, even if you could now get to a consensus. It’s just way too late to change. And still way too early for podcasting to be universally useful. “Podcast” is now where the Internet was when it was just gathering steam.
Of course the “pod” in podcast no longer has any exclusive connection to the iPod. (I recall Apple even disavowing podcasting in its first stages.)
Still, changing the name from PodShow to, what was it, Melvin? could be a good idea in the sense that a unique name is always a good thing in marketing, especially for differentiation purposes. That said, I believe a great product would eventually triumph even if it was called “Snerd.” Well, if the distribution, price & promotion were there too.
But that said, it always helps when the product name gives strong clues as to what it is about. “Mevio” barely does that. And if the point was to get away from “Pod” as everyone else uses, jumping into the I, You, Me thing might not be much better.
If PodShow wasn’t working, maybe it’s for the same reason you might not want to watch anything called “BroadShow” in broadcasting.
All of which reminds me of the searing disdain I have for media businesses that think putting the word “Digital” in their name gives them an edge. Because before you know it, you’ve got the old days of NBC – oooh, in “Living Color” no less.
But I’m sure there is/was concern about the $ and efforts already made to establish “PodShow” as a brand. What I’ve always thought about logos is that just about the time you are getting tired of your logo, your market is just starting to clue into it.
A lot of the negative connotations with “podcast” will be sorted out in the future in the same way Toyota and Honda and even FM radio went from laughable junk to mainstream. The democratic nature of the podcast will always ensure there will be cream at the top. Eventually it will be understood that this is one of podcasting’s strengths.
fwiw,
RBG
Sounds like a pretty stupid web 2.0 name to me.
My thoughts on this:
http://tinyurl.com/67lqos
[Please use TinyUrl.com for overly long URLs. – ed.]
You can call it “me-casting” instead of podcasting
Just to add to what a couple of others have said, I have never been able to find anything on the PodShow (or BTPodShow here in the UK since the deal with BT – talk about brand corruption) web site. I have always had to google and find the RSS feed and subscribe to that to get the shows.
I’ll admit my “mevio”-catcher of choice is a variant of BasPodder. Yes I’m a Linux user and it’s a small shell script that is actually kept on the SD cards for my Nokia N800 and the USB stick MP3 (and .ogg) player (from Samsung). My modified BashPodder may be simple but it’s worked very well for years (unless someone messes about with the RSS feed).
Anyway, I don’t “get” the PodShow (now Mevio, although in the UK it redirects to btpodshow still) site and always give up before I find anything of interest. I have much more luck with PodcastAlley, it’s not great but I can find stuff.
Here in the UK we are still seeing Mevio as ‘BTPodshow’, also domains which refer to Mevio redirect to BTPodshow, e.g. tech5.mevio.com comes up as tech5.btpodshow.com on UK based browsers. I guess BT, Mevio’s UK partner is still happy with the Podshow name, or are we going to be seeing a change here ?
Do you realize the new name is an anagram for “movie”? Not a good or a bad thing, it’s just that it jumped out at me right away and you didn’t mention it in the reasoning behind the name.
Way too many vowels to be Web 2.0 😉 Maybe that will be the trend for Web 3.0, more vowels than consonants!
Meh, I think if any other company tried this you’d complain about it.
Whatever, call the company what you like, it’ll still be a podcast – nobody ever used the word podshow in a sentence. Unless it was in an ad that is.
Leo may have complained about it in the past but maybe on the next episode of no agenda you could ask Curry if he’d like to be the Mevio-Father?
41 kevlar
You can call it “me-casting” instead of podcasting
Ok, but it sounds kinda funny when an international banking conglomerate uses it.
RBG
Adam Curry coined the term “Podcast.” Another term I’ve heard is “Podshow.” They’re simple and unambiguous terms for audio shows that can run on an iPod or other portable music player, as well as PCs with iTunes or other podcast downloading software. A video equivalent ought to be out there.
“Mevio” doesn’t really sound like anything, and I’m not sure how to pronounce it. Maybe Mee-vee-o or Mev-i-o. Not good.
Cripes! On the Mevio site, you have to stop a damn video on every page you go to. PIA
From the podshow press release:
“We have never believed in user-generated content as a business, or even as a sustainable entertainment offering,” said Ron Bloom
From Ron’s site:
“I put forward the 5/50 rule that predicted within 5 years, over 50% of the content consumed would be created by other consumers. From my vantage point, I’m now thinking that I underestimated the percentages.”
Mevio? eeeYuck! Call it like it is, man – JohnCasting! Or maybe Dvodcasting.
48 floyd. There was some thought to vodcast and vidcast but “podcast” has dominated to taken in both audio & video.
RBG
Mevio… sounds vaguely bovine. Like a web 2.0 milk brand.
“meh-vio”
What the hell is up with this web 2.0 shit!? When did we start numbering the web development process? I was posting BBS text in the late 1980’s. So now we have a guy that creates a post exactly like what we veterans were posting years ago and some company comes along and calls it “Collaboration.” Roughly twenty years later, this term is all of a sudden popular and people are thinking “ooh yeah that’s a fancy important word! oooh collaboration…let’s collaborate on our next web page and call it “Web 2.0.” It’s fancy and uses fancy code and looks pretty! Also, Leo Laporte has the right idea. Audio shows are not “Podcasts” because to the inherently uneducated public, it sounds like you need an IPod to listen to them. Gah stupid people piss me off! Natural Selection does not currently discriminate between partially educated and just plain stupid people. I know. I talk to idiots every day for a living.
as this has turned partially into a podshow rant, I can chip in there as well.
About two or maybe 2 1/2 years ago, some of the podshow podcasts were among the first I subscribed. Some were great, some were not so great. By now, all but Tips from the Top Floor have been dropped from my podcatcher, mainly because they lost more and more content and added irrelevant advertizing (I couldn’t bear stupid godaddy anymore!)
The other thing that I just absolutely don’t like are those stupid greetings / callouts / plugs. Yes, it is ok to run one per show, but that’s only tolerated (at least that’s my point on it). I know most podcasters do what they do for free and some do provide great content, so they should have the freedom to do with their format whatever hey think suits best or is most fun. Podshow, however, is a for-profit, so if they run endless ads, either for other companies or for their own programming, they make me pay for content they’re getting almost for free by listening to stuff that I don’t want to listen to. I call that a broken business model.
The Podshow site was broken from day one, I’ve probably visited it three or four times and never again.
I did like the podsafe music idea, but I stopped following it due to the shitty quality of the site (the first iterations didn’t even work right on Linux!).
Let’s face it: Leo Laporte has it right for those of us who care for content. Podshow might be the the larger shop, but they’re fucking up big time.
pj
The name mevio is not sticking with me. I never liked podcast either as it associates with iPod which I don’t have or want, but at least it rings with broadcast. Say mevio 10 times and say podcast 10 times. Mevio starts getting slurred. Podcast is sharp and crisp. “Go get my mevio” someone said. “Go get my podcast” someone said. The person who heard “mevio” isn’t sure what to do, wondering what’s a “me” and what’s a “vio”. The other person knew exactly what to do. Someone should pick something better. And it looks like the website requires Flash. Flash is annoying. I don’t use it. I avoid websites who do. Stick with WMA which every Windows computer can play. Podshow is a good name but the site has flaws. First, I don’t want to download THEIR player, I want a simple WMA file. When I figure out where to get the WMA, half the time it’s an old show. What works is when the link to download is on the Dvorak page now. Tell ya what, I’ll buy “Podshow.com” for a song and dance when they realize they need to do something else, yea, that’s the ticket, when they realize how it’s a failed model and don’t want it, I’ll buy it and post the song and dance number on your MEVIA website or was that MOVIA or MUVIO or MAVIA or MYVIU or MEROFL, oh that’s right it’s MOOVOVR right?
The name mevio is not sticking with me. I never liked podcast either as it associates with iPod which I don’t have or want, but at least it rings with broadcast. Say mevio 10 times and say podcast 10 times. Mevio starts getting slurred. Podcast is sharp and crisp. “Go get my mevio” someone said. “Go get my podcast” someone said. The person who heard “mevio” isn’t sure what to do, wondering what’s a “me” and what’s a “vio”. The other person knew exactly what to do. Someone should pick something better. And it looks like the website requires Flash. Flash is annoying. I don’t use it. I avoid websites who do. Stick with WMA which every Windows computer can play. Podshow is a good name but the site has flaws. First, I don’t want to download THEIR player, I want a simple WMA file. When I figure out where to get the WMA, half the time it’s an old show. What works is when the link to download is on the Dvorak page now. Tell ya what, I’ll buy “Podshow.com” for a song and dance when they realize they need to do something else, yea, that’s the ticket, when they realize how it’s a failed model and don’t want it, I’ll buy it and post the song and dance number on your MEVIA website or was that MOVIA or MUVIO or MAVIA or MYVIU or MEROFL or something…….
just noticed that there’s another site called vimeo… or miveo? it’s all the same.
pj
So, whats wrong with “webcast?”
the name mevio -being a concatenation of possible root words reminds me too much of ‘moviso’ -a distributor of mobile content. their name stems from comining the words mobile, vision, & sound.
the name ‘mevio’ still takes some getting used to.