There are a lot of websites that offer free downloads of media. What is amazing is the the number of sites that misuse the term. I have found several sites, including Twittv (which should know better), that seemed confused by the term.
Download implies that you are copying a file to your hard drive. This means that you can access the content without needing to be online at the time. But TWIT & other sites I have been on mean something different. Namely click download & the file starts playing. It doesn't go on your computer. it is simply streaming audio, usually with Quicktime as the media player. Again, this means to play it you have to be online, using a browser. That is not a download. I don't need to be online to play music that's in my itunes library.
So I'm confused. Are these sites deliberately misusing the term to get listeners, or are they unaware of the proper terminology? Maybe the thought is that non-techies don't understand the meaning of streaming, but if that's the case, a short description belongs on the site, & TWIT shouldn't at all, since it is a tech site.
With the number of people using computers & smartphones today to access media, correct terminology is neccessary so as not to turn people off. I don't want to have to go to multiple sites to find something just because the wrong word is being used to describe what the site does or offers.
Download implies that you are copying a file to your hard drive. This means that you can access the content without needing to be online at the time. But TWIT & other sites I have been on mean something different. Namely click download & the file starts playing. It doesn't go on your computer. it is simply streaming audio, usually with Quicktime as the media player. Again, this means to play it you have to be online, using a browser. That is not a download. I don't need to be online to play music that's in my itunes library.
So I'm confused. Are these sites deliberately misusing the term to get listeners, or are they unaware of the proper terminology? Maybe the thought is that non-techies don't understand the meaning of streaming, but if that's the case, a short description belongs on the site, & TWIT shouldn't at all, since it is a tech site.
With the number of people using computers & smartphones today to access media, correct terminology is neccessary so as not to turn people off. I don't want to have to go to multiple sites to find something just because the wrong word is being used to describe what the site does or offers.
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