Need to find a podcast quick-fast? Google’s search results will now show you podcasts when you’re searching from a browser, and show you three of its most recent podcasts which can be played directly in Google’s web player.
This addition was announced at Google I/O 2019 earlier this week, but it’s now live, meaning you can search for podcasts on both desktop and mobile. It’s pretty robust, too: the playback controls let you skip forwards and backwards, control the playback speed and if you’re signed in to a Google account it’ll also save your progress and sync it to wherever else you’re Googling.
This feature doesn’t only search for the title or meta data of the podcasts but also can search for the audio – as Google transcribes them — directly within the podcast show itself. Searching for a podcast brings up the latest trio of episodes and lets you play them instantly from the Google Podcasts web player on desktop or mobile. It uses the same mechanics as the Android app that came out last year, and syncs across multiple devices if you’re signed in to your Google account. The app isn’t out on iOS, but you can still use the features on an Apple device’s web browser.
Zack Reneau-Wedeen, founder and head of product for Google Podcasts, posted this news on Twitter “Rolling out this week you’ll be able to search for and play podcasts directly in Google Search across Android, iOS, and desktop browsers, a step toward making audio a first-class citizen across Google.”
Podcast Markup: is a special Podcast structured data that you can use to help Google with discovering and understanding your podcast. Google says, “You can enable your podcast to appear in Google Search results and Google Podcasts, along with individual episode descriptions and an embedded player for each. This feature is available through the Google Search App for Android (requires v6.5 or higher of the Google Search App), Google Podcasts app, Chrome for Android , Google Home, and Google Assistant.”
This is a great step for the tech giants especially for those who produce podcasts can finally get more visibility in search to their content. Make sure to use Podcast markup to ensure you get the most visibility from your audio files. And it could help ease the stress of getting your podcast on, meaning if you’re curious about a podcast you can go from hearing about it from a friend to actually hearing it on your phone or computer in just a couple of clicks. Simple, and a big improvement for users without their own dedicated podcast app on mobile or desktop devices.
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