What do all those strange little icons/symbols mean?
We made some icons that are specific to our site; some are standard icons (many sites use them). We’ll do our best to explain them all here:
The RSS/podcast feed icon. On our site, this icon will be next to every podcast because podcasts use RSS, which is a subscription technology that delivers podcasts to you regularly much like you can receive newsletters by email. Once you’re a member of Podcast.com you can just use the 
button to subscribe to a RSS feed. Around the Web this icon means you can subscribe to the content on the page you’re looking at using an RSS reader, and Podcast.com is an online RSS reader. You can use to subscribe to text, audio, video, and many other types of files. If you click on a RSS icon you might see a bunch of code and text, which means you don’t have a program set up to read or subscribe to RSS. [Read more about RSS and how to use it here.]
Freshest feeds. Like the RSS icon, but green! This is a type of RSS feed we think is very useful. If you click on this icon, you can see all the newest podcast episodes of all the podcast feeds in that folder, so you can listen to or watch the most recent podcasts.
A playlist feed. Like the RSS icon, but yellow! This is another type of RSS feed. If you are a member, when you add a podcast to your playlist it will appear in this feed. [Read more about that here.]
The permalink. Blogs have made this term popular; it’s the URL where a particular post can be found so that you can share a blog post with friends. You may have already noticed why this is useful on Podcast.com; if you search through the directory of podcasts on our homepage, you may notice that the URL for the page you’re on always remains the same: “http://www.podcast.com”. However, if you click this purple permalink icon, you can then see what URL that page lives on. Example: “http://www.podcast.com/show/798″ is ESPN Radio Daily. Then you can share that podcast with your friends or go directly to that page later.
The folder icon. This is exactly what it seems — a folder that holds things. On our site it’s a folder that holds podcasts, Web links, and other RSS feeds.
The OPML icon. You will see this on any site on the Web that uses OPML. OPML is not yet as common as RSS, but it’s becoming more and more popular. Essentially, OPML is a list of RSS feeds, and you use OPML to manage all of your RSS subscriptions at once. If you click on this icon you might see a bunch of code and text, which means you don’t have a program set up to read or subscribe to OPML. [You can read more about that and more about OPML here.]
The ‘manage your collection’ icon. This is for members of our site. This will appear below your collection of podcasts at the right side of your member page. When you click it, you can move your podcasts around, put them into folders, add Web links and OPML, and more.
Add a RSS/podcast feed. Also for members of our site. When you are logged in this icon will appear below your collection of podcasts. You can add a RSS/podcast feed to your collection of podcasts.
A Web link. This is a link to a website other than Podcast.com. As a members of our site you can add a Web link to your collection of podcasts. You can do this after you click .
The ‘add a folder’ icon. Also for members of our site. When you are on any page on the site other than your member page, you can click this icon and it will add that folder to your collection of podcasts. Then updates to that folder will show up automatically in your collection — you don’t have to go back to check.
Add OPML. Also for members of our site. If you have a link to an OPML file, you can add it here. [You can read more about OPML here.]
“Hoist” a folder in a collection of podcasts. You will see this icon if you look at a collection of podcasts on the right side of a page on Podcast.com. Our collections have folders within folders within folders, and by clicking on this icon you will only view the contents of the folder you are in. If you want to go back up a folder, or several folders, you can navigate back using the breadcrumbs above the folder (example: ROOTY / PODCASTS (audio) /SPORTS).
Load podcast collection. You might see this icon on the left side of the page. This means you can load that collection of podcasts; they will appear as the directory on the right.
Create a widget [coming soon]. Soon, as a member, you will be able to create a widget that shows a collection of podcasts on Podcast.com on your blog or website. It will replace this icon: 
