Extensions

[beatfreax]

I agree with some people I speak who all don't understand there is no defined extension for podcast feeds. I know I'm not the one to change this.... but why not define a new extension like .pod or something? This would be so much clearer to not-so-technical-people and average surfers....

Or am I wrong? Please share your thoughts on this.

[camilian]

You are right. This is just one of those simple things that could move podcasting into the mainstream. Now if someone would make a mp3 player with a built in aggregator....

[Cookiepuss]

Well. .. being that a .pod file would in reality just be an mp3 it would be an issue. Plus all audio aoftware would have to have a plugin to recognize .pod as an audio file. So everythig from the iPod to the Windows Media Player would need it.

You could always try to write an RFC for it and submit it to IETF (http://www.ietf.org/home.html). But I would guess it would not get very far since companies making these products and software would need to adopt it, It would be much easier if only one piece of sotware or hardware were involved. Then makers create extensions all the time. Like .psd for PhotoShop files or .aud for Audacity porject files etc.

It is a good idea though, just hard to make that sort of change across the board. :D

[beatfreax]

@ Cookie: No I don't mean the MP3 file itself, but the feed. Especially with the "RSS-hype" at the moment you see people using so many different file names.

Just looking through my iPodder subscribtions shows me .xml, .php and .rss files. It would be so much easier (and indeed pull it into the mainstream) when everybody would for instance use .pod and your aggregator recognizes this extension and opens it (see: bittorent for example).

[benc]

There's a reason for those different file types... an RSS feed is technically an XML specification, so that rationalizes the use of .xml. Though, RSS has it's own subset of rules and specs, which rationalizes the use of .rss too. Obviously, .php, and maybe even .asp, are used because the feeds are generated server-side, and while it is possible to configure the server to use a server-side parser (ie. PHP or ASP) with any extension, it would mean more configuration for the server admin.
Lastly, having a .pod file would be inappropriate because it doesn't differ in any way from the RSS specification, it just makes better use of the enclosure tags than anything else.