Podcasts appeal to geeks shocker

To whom should you be targeting your podcasts? Apple users, Trekkies and maybe Nike lovers, according to a new survey.

Macworld is the most-visited content site by people who download audio podcasts, according to media research group Nielsen/NetRatings, while StarTrek.com is the most visited content site among video podcast downloaders.

The report is based on an ongoing survey conducted from 2005 to the present, according to a spokeswoman for the company. The survey asks actively online US adults to answer questions about their behaviour "within the last 30 days".

Among those surveyed, 51.6 per cent said they paid bills online, and 24.6 per cent participated in online job hunting. Emailing is still the most popular online activity at 92.7 per cent, with news reading (71.5 per cent) and weather checking (63.9 per cent) in second and third place, respectively. Compared with those statistics, downloading podcasts is still a relatively unpopular activity.

Overall, 6.6 per cent of adults said they had downloaded audio podcasts within the last 30 days, and four per cent had downloaded video podcasts. Since the question has only been recently added to the survey, according to the Nielsen/NetRatings spokeswoman, there is no data available for 2004 to allow for a growth comparison. (Blogging came in even lower at 4.8 per cent.)

Michael Lanz, a Nielsen/NetRatings analyst, said: "We can expect to see [podcast downloading] become increasingly popular as portable content media players proliferate."

Internet users in the 18 to 24 age group are twice as likely to download audio podcasts than the average online adult. When it comes to video podcasts, however, the 25 to 34 age group downloads the most, and follow a close second for audio downloads, the report said.

The majority of people who download audio or video podcasts use Safari, hinting that Apple users may download the most podcasts. Firefox came in second overall. Internet Explorer came in a distant third among audio podcast downloaders, and AOL was third among video podcast downloaders.

Audio downloaders also seem to be interested in trainers. According to the report, the number one ecommerce site among audio downloaders was Niketown.com, not a music-downloading site as one might expect. (The site is Nike's official online store, not a website affiliated with the Nike+iPod playlists.) In fact, iTunes came in third. Apple's website was second.

Candace Lombardi writes for CNET News.com