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I met up with my old friend Aditya at Prithvi Cafe yesterday evening. Aditya and I have been friends since our IIM-B days, and I’ll always think of him as one person who didn’t disown me when everybody else had, during a particularly painful period involving (what else?) a bad break-up.
Aditya has become something of a technology evangelist since we last met and spend his time judging business plan contest at IITs and participating in seminars on technology and entrepreneurship.
Over yummy aloo paratha rolls, I had the most stimulating time talking with him about how Google is going to transform traditional advertising with AdWords (my plug) and how mobile search is going to be the cause of Google’s downfall (his plug).
We also ended up talking about why podcasts haven’t taken off in the same way as blogs have and here’s my theory.
Podcasts are to radio what blogs are to newspapers and the only way to answer the “why podcast over blog?” question is to answer the “why radio over newspaper?” and “why blog over newspaper?” questions.
Why radio over newspaper? People listen to radio because it appeals to different senses (hearing) and needs (music) than newspapers. Also, reading a newspaper requires your full attention while listening to radio doesn’t. Therefore, radio is at its best when it entertains and enables multi-tasking by running in the background, while you do something else, often on the move.
Why blog over newspaper? People read newspapers online because online newspapers are search-able and linkable. People read blogs, instead of online newspapers, because blogs offer a more personal perspective on news and other stories.
Why podcasts over blogs? People are already listening to music online because online music is search-able, linkable and download-able, address a need that text cannot satisfy, and is multi-tasking friendly. People will listen to podcasts when podcasts become search-able and linkable and multi-tasking friendly. Which means that technology is available to allow people to search and link within the podcast and enough people have iPods to listen to podcasts on the move. Also, podcasts that are personal and entertainment-oriented will probably have a bigger market than podcasts that are information-oriented (desi male bonding chit-chat at Indicast vs. CXO interviews by Kamla and Kiruba).
Finally, here’s a thought for all of us who regret not blogging in the early 2000s, when there weren’t too many blogs and it was possible to own a broad niche - the same opportunity exists in podcasting, video-blogging and micro-blogging (Twitter) today and it’s up to us to own our niche.
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