How popular are podcasts really?

We hear about podcasts all the time but in reality, how popular are they really? A recent Neowin.net poll asked users if they listend to the two podcasts that Neowin.net sponsors: PowerUser.TV and PowerUser.TV: NeowinCast. Of the thousands that responded, only 33% said they had listened to either one.

In fact, 14% of users responded they didn't know what a podcast was leaving a solid majority of users in the category of knowing what a podcast was but not listening to the Neowin podcasts. Of course, this leaves room for the answer "I listen to podcats but I don't happen to listen (or know about) the Neowin podcasts.

Despite the attention podcasts have gotten, there is question as to just how popular they are compared to say a popular website. Twit.TV, Diggnation, etc. boast hundreds of thousands of listeners. But in the case of Digg.com, they boast millions of daily readers.

So our question to you is, do you listen to podcasts? What do you think of them? Do you think they're over-hyped or do you think they are going to become increasingly mainstream? Let us know.