The name comes from combining of the words iPod (music player by Apple) and broadcast. The origin of podcasts dates back to the year 2000. It was then that the first version of RSS technology for publishing audio and video content appeared. A rapid increase of interest in podcasting took place between 2004 and 2005. As of the end of September 2005, the number of results delivered by Google search engine were not more than 500, whereas a year later it amounted to over 100 million. Google Trends dates the first searches related to the word podcast as the end of September 2004.

In order to listen to podcasts one doesn’t need an iPod or any other music player; it’s enough to have a computer capable of playing MP3 files (and in case of video podcast also video files) and software that can download and catalogue transmissions according to information contained in RSS files published together with the podcasts. Many podcasts don’t even require publishing direct links to MP3 files on websites.