Tim writes: [www.tbray.org]

Would it be an oversimplification to say that Podcasting could turn the Net into a great big PVR?

…to which I say, “yes”. As oversimplifications go, I suspect that is one. In the UK, we’d possibly also call it a “pseud”.

In respect of the proposition: you can’t always find what you’re looking for, it’s full of stuff you don’t actually want, and the quality is dubious at best. So actually I suppose that sounds more and more the ‘Net is like a PVR. 😎

Perhaps the thrust of Tim’s suggestion is correct – after all, I seem to remember a colleague of mine telling me that her TiVO had spontaneously decided she was into Mexican / Spanish-language soap-opera[1], so calling the Internet a PxR for varying values of “x” is probably justifiable.

Eg: given the amount of embarrassing stuff you can get by mining Google Groups, we could equally-well call the ‘Net a Personal Embarrassment Recorder.

Theory aside however: I do concur with Tim. To call the net a PVR would be an oversimplification.