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Podcasting is Not Walled (Yet) (rakhim.org)
Rakhim Davletkaliyev, a software developer, writer and podcaster, recently launched two new podcasts. One of the things he was asked by people following the launches was "but how do I subscribe, it's not on iTunes/Google Podcasts?" He writes: Podcasts are simply RSS feeds with links to media files (usually mp3s). A podcast is basically a URL. And podcast clients are special browsers. They check that URL regularly and download new episodes if the content of the URL changes (new link added). That's it, no magic, no special membership or anything else required. The technology is pretty "stupid" in a good way.
Ever since tech companies started waging war against RSS, podcast distribution became visually RSS-free. What do you do to subscribe? Easy, just search in the app! For the majority of iOS users that app is Apple Podcasts, and recently Google made their own "default client" for Android -- Google Podcasts. It looks like podcast clients are similar to web browsers and just provide a way to consume content, but the underlying listings make them very different. Corresponding services are actually isolated catalogs. When you perform a search on Apple Podcasts, you aren't searching for podcasts. You are searching for Apple-approved podcasts. And if the thing you're looking for is not there, then... well, you get nothing.
Most Podcast clients still accept RSS. Apple Podcasts, iTunes, PocketCasts, OverCast, PodcastAddict. Google Play Music doesn't say anything explicitly, but you can just put RSS URL into the search field and it works. For now. I won't be surprised if these apps gradually and silently remove this feature.
Ever since tech companies started waging war against RSS, podcast distribution became visually RSS-free. What do you do to subscribe? Easy, just search in the app! For the majority of iOS users that app is Apple Podcasts, and recently Google made their own "default client" for Android -- Google Podcasts. It looks like podcast clients are similar to web browsers and just provide a way to consume content, but the underlying listings make them very different. Corresponding services are actually isolated catalogs. When you perform a search on Apple Podcasts, you aren't searching for podcasts. You are searching for Apple-approved podcasts. And if the thing you're looking for is not there, then... well, you get nothing.
Most Podcast clients still accept RSS. Apple Podcasts, iTunes, PocketCasts, OverCast, PodcastAddict. Google Play Music doesn't say anything explicitly, but you can just put RSS URL into the search field and it works. For now. I won't be surprised if these apps gradually and silently remove this feature.
Do you know how many walled gardens there are for podcasts? I've helped a couple people list their RSS feed and I didn't post to anywhere near this number of services. If this were part of an open web, they would simply be indexed by search engines and no manual submission would be needed. You don't have to explicitly submit your web site to Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, etc, so why should podcasts be any different? Sure, you can prefer manually-submitted entries. But expecting every podcast to know of every directory is insane.
No, the author means "visually." If you look at Apple's Podcasts app for iOS, for example, you will see a "search" function that surfaces (approved) content for those looking to discover new podcasts. There is no visual indication--no icon, no label, no indication whatsoever--that you can hand the app a RSS URL that you have independently discovered and subscribe to its feed. You can, in fact, subscribe that way by clicking on a pcast:// URL in Safari or another app, but you have to do that from outside the Podcasts app. Visually, by just looking around in Apple's Podcasts app, you would never discover that you can subscribe to RSS feeds not sanctioned by Apple. If Apple removed that feature, users who did not know it had been there would never learn that it was taken from them and that they were suddenly locked into a censored catalogue of podcasts with no chance to hear dissident podcasts. The author seems to want Apple, Google, et al. to expose RSS subscription visually so that users know that they can enter an RSS URL not listed in the proprietary search index and subscribe to feeds beyond Apple and Google's power to censor.
What with the censorship by Google, Twitter et. al., I really don't want mega corporations telling me whom I may and may not listen to.
Using Safari to listen or watch a podcast doesn't cut it for a variety of reasons.
It's time to resurrect dedicated rss players and bypass the Internet's censors.
RSS and things built on top of it like Podcasts are good for users. But the technology is bad for advertisers. If you see criticism of RSS, look closely at where it comes from. If it comes from someone trying to sell you something, take their advice with a grain of salt.
It's been said before that advertisers and ad brokers are at a disadvantage with RSS. But Web 2.0 developers that wish to sell frameworks and services are also at a big disadvantage too. You'll see self-described web experts that disregard RSS as being primitive, limited, or no longer relevant. But I have to wonder if this has more to do with such "experts" trying to compete with a free and established technology.
Still, I believe it is inevitable that RSS will die. Take Usenet newsgroups for example, that is basically dead, at least in terms of being a widely used communication hub as it once was. What replaces it? A fractured set of isolated web forums (that includes /. and Reddit). Instead of having a huge global network of message boards, we have tiny isolated communities, and even that medium is dying out. Replaced by the top post schemes of Facebook groups, Google+, and Twitter.
Why did Usenet die? There are many factors, but one of the big ones is that it's hard to get ad revenue from running a news server and easy set up on a web forum.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Yes. Podcasts are massive on the political right, which sees the mainstream media as captured and controlled by the left. The right looks at podcasts as a way for grass-roots populists to communicate by decentralized publication of opinions, and a vibrant network of podcasts have sprung up on the right, while the left gets its opinions from the mainstream news and comedy through centralized distribution.
And that's what is so dangerous about RSS/podcasting.
The Nazi right-wing racist Jew-loving Muslim-hating Zionist fascists use it to spread their message of racism and hate, thereby forcing peaceful people on the Left to don black garb and masks, go out to wherever these scumbags assemble, and wield baseball bats, Molotov cocktails, and other weapons to defend themselves against the violence that is Right-wing speech. Right-wing speech is violence and must be answered with overwhelming physical violence in defense.
It's the only way to maintain a peaceful society that respects alternative views.