Making things “universal” has become a big thing in the tech world. There’s universal software that runs on Intel and PPC Macs, “universal” files that’ll open on Macs and PCs, and even a universal feed icon that indicates when they’re an RSS or Atom feed present. Well, now something new has joined the list. The German site Podcastlogo.com has recently held a contest to decide upon a “universal” and “official” logo for podcasting. Peter Marqardt won just won the contest, with a design that is the official RSS/Atom feed logo with headphones around it (see right). The design, in my opinion, at least, seems kind of cool, but it does lack some creativity (I mean, it’s just the feed logo, with headphones, come on!). Also, most people, including myself, have been using the “standardized” podcast logos created by Tim Madden. But still, maybe this logo could make it to the big time. Hey, the official feed logo has made it all the way to Firefox and IE7, maybe this “official” podcast logo could be an indicator in Firefox of when there’s a podcast feed embedded in a page. Maybe.
[via Wired News]
Personally I like it, not sure how it would scale that well into the line height of a text link, maybe it will?
And maybe the horse has bolted already in regards to trying to run out a new icon standard.
I am not even sure we need a standard, the most importatnt thing is to communicate to people that there is a podcast and where to get it.
Standard icons would help with the instant recognition like the orange RSS icon we see everywhere, but I'm not sure it's essential.
Check the comments on Wired as well, there is talk of this 'competition' being a hoax.