Difference between Webcasts & Podcasts

Difference between webcasts & podcasts

Webcasts and Podcasts have a few things in common, but they are very different.

Both are different ways of getting information, via audio and or video "streamming" to a lot of people anywhere in the world using the Internet. The words themselves, like so many other new words being added every year to our vocabulary & dictionaries for computer lingo, are fairly new:

• Webcast became popular in the mid 1990’s
• Podcast became a popular term in 2001 because of the Apple iPod…

A basic difference is that Webcasts are sent in "real time," meaning that they are "live" (even though some Webcasts are saved and then viewed later) and they are watched on a computer... So many companies and organizations use webcasts today versus holding “in person” large conventions or seminars (often referred to as webinars-another great new word)

Podcasts end up being archived and can be viewed at a later date and they can be saved and played back on your iPod or many smartphones today, and if they are audio only then you can play them back on your portable music player, like your mp3 player.. Many Podcasts are “pre-recorded” and then published on their site as files you can open at your convenience – fast-forwarding, starting & stopping and rewinding – whatever you want.

Most of us find that Webcasts can't be copied and shared as easily as a Podcast can