We’re probably still in the golden era of podcasts as you can search for any topic in the world, no matter how obscure, and you’ll probably discover a podcast related to it. You even now have a network TV show where the main character is a podcaster (that’s Alex Inc for you). But Google acknowledges that there is a disparity between iOS and Android when it comes to listening and discovering new shows. Now they’re aiming to address it with a new strategy, one that they’ve already started rolling out.
Maybe their first goal is to actually tell people that there are already podcasting tools available on Google Search and that Google Assistant can help you with it as well. When you search for a podcast, for example, actual episodes will already appear in the search results and you can already play them from there. When you tap on “More Episodes” it will show you the full episode list, an option to actually subscribe, and you can even add and manage multiple podcast subscriptions, all from the Google Search page.
If you tap Add to Home Screen, you’ll get a Podcast shortcut that leads you to a sort of “home base” where you can see all your subscriptions and episodes. There are even sections like Top Podcasts, Trending Podcasts, with recommendations. So basically it’s like an app but not really an app. You can also now let your Google Assistant play a podcast through voice command and when you switch from your Android device to Google Home or vice versa, it will pick up where you left off with “device interoperability”.
Zack Reneau-Weeden, Google’s Podcast Product Manager, says this is just the first part of their long-term plans. In the near future, podcasts will become “first-class citizens” in your search results next to text, image, videos, etc. Their speech and language understanding will also lead to “futuristic features”, bringing even more discoverability for podcast creators and listeners alike.
SOURCE: Pacific Content
