Want to change the terms of an argument? Then just change the actual terms being used. If you want to, say, get the
estate tax repealed, just start calling it the
death tax instead. And if you want to remind people that there are other audio players besides the iPod, get them to drop the brand-specific term
podcast, and replace it with the brand-neutral
blogcast instead. That seems to be the philosophy at Microsoft, according to a number of recent news items. The software giant, which was earlier rumored to have banned iPods from its corporate campus, has now been accused of
banning the word podcast as well. While Microsofties
have denied that there's a ban in effect, there's no denying that
blogcast has
caught on in Redmond — though it looks like it's mostly being used to describe video streams. That would put it at odds with another brand-neutral term that's caught on:
vlogs. Not sure which I like better, though
Googlefight gives
vlog a huge lead, so it looks like
blogcast may not have a whole lot of staying power — no matter what it means.
Tags: news
