[dublinben]

There's already such thing as "pcast://" links, which are recognized by most podcasting clients. It also doesn't get any easier than just offering the naked RSS feed. Any kind of obfuscation around that just makes things more painful for users.

[benzimmer]

First, it's actually not that simple :) We tried out like a whole lot of podcast clients (30+ I think) and 'are recognized by most podcasting clients' is certainly not true. That's why we recommend the following to client developers: If your OS allows it subscribe to the OS default (which is often pcast://) but also define your own schema (like mypodcastclient://). This allows us to have a 'Open device default app' link that on Android shows all installed clients that subscribe to pcast://, but also to specifically start a client with its schema.

Second, 'It also doesn't get any easier than just offering the naked RSS feed.' is also not true. We talked to a lot of people and subscribing to a podcast is a nightmare for people that don't get (and don't want to get) the concept of what an RSS feed is. And copying and pasting links from a webpage to an application is already an obfuscation (and a real pain in the ass on a mobile device) for the 'normal' user, so why not add a more user friendly obfuscation :)

However, the button is an experiment and we'll see if and how people will use it. Until now the feedback from podcasters and listeners is nothing but positive.