July 18th, 2005

Watching the game of “Telephone” play out on the Internet

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Let’s see if I can get this straight.

First, Chris Pirillo says (timecode 37:59) he’s not entirely pleased with the word “podcast” in Episode 11 of This Week in Tech. The Seattle-PI then reports that the sentiment is shared with “several Microsoft employees” who have coined the word “blogcast” to replace it. Next, c|net picks up the story and says that the word “podcast” is a “faux-pas” on Microsoft campus. [Typo fixed: 9am]

In this manner, a remark by someone who isn’t even a Microsoft employee becomes, through rumor, speculation, and wild extrapolation, a word-ban at Microsoft.

Pretty neat trick.

Category
Old New Thing
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Author

Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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