Google has been upping its podcast game over the last year or so, and now the company is making it easier than ever to find and listen to your favorite podcasts. When you search for specific podcasts on the web, say,This American Life, Google will find the most recent episodes and list them with direct-play links. These links then open the selected episode within Google’s Podcasts web player interface, showing episode details in the main webpage, and placing playback controls at the bottom of the browser window.
The move follows several podcast product debuts from Google in 2018, including the launch of adedicated podcasts app, and the ability to launch podcastsdirectly from the Google appitself. Don’t expect Google’s new web search podcast shortcut to work with all podcasts, however. Earlier this year, the BBC announced that it waspulling all of its podcastsfrom Google’s platforms over concerns relating to control, audience data, and possible monetization via advertising. If yousearch right nowfor some of the BBC’s most popular podcasts, likeInside Science, you’ll only get the regular web search results — no links to play recent episodes.
As interesting as Google’s new feature is, it’s still just an enhanced search result. Podcast junkies looking for their next episodic obsession might be better off exploring Pandora’s Podcast Genome Project launched in 2018. Much like its algorithmically-powered music recommendation engine, listeners can get customized podcast recommendations based on their existing podcast listening tendencies.
