Throughout the last year, Google has been busy making increased investments in the world of podcasting. These developments directly follow the release of the dedicated Google Podcasts app. Their most recent contribution, however, seeks to make it even easier to listen to your favorite podcasts!
The newest change involves google search engine queries by name for a specific podcast title. Now, you can type the name of *certain* podcasts into the search bar, and the top results will include direct links to listen to some of their recent episodes!
How it works
When you search for specific podcasts, google will find the three most recent episodes from the show. These episodes will be listed by title, and include a timestamp of when the episode was released, as well as the length in hours/minutes that the episode runs.
Across from each episode title, is a blue “play” button that is clickable. When clicked, you are redirected to the Google Podcasts landing page for that particular episode. This includes the episode description and show notes, as well as a player with playback controls to stream the episode.
In addition to listing the three most recent episodes at the top of the search engine results, they also provide a link reading “more episodes.” When you click on this, you are redirected to the full web player for that show through Google Podcasts. The entire library of episodes can be played from this page.
Not only does Google present episodes for immediate playback as a result of a search engine query, but they also provide a detailed Wikipedia description of the show. The tile is listed with relevant pictures, accompanied by information such as hosts names, genre, original release date, and how often new episodes are released. Following this information is a list of other podcasts “people also searched for” that you may find interesting if you like that particular content.
*It is important to note that this search engine result is not yet applicable to *all* podcasts. Only the top-performing, most talked about, and most streamed podcasts have this available to them right now.
So, what does this mean?
With this type of prominence in search engine results, Google once again displays its belief in the importance and popularity of podcasts. They are expecting lots of people to hear about mainstream podcasts and search for them on the web! Not only are they expecting those searches, but they want to make it easier for the podcasts to be heard as a result of those searches.
This move from Google is an exciting one. We can’t yet predict how this change will affect podcasts in the long run, but we can imagine that it’s a good sign in the right direction. Podcasts continue to pick up more prominence every single day. It certainly is a good time to be podcasting!
Contact [email protected] today to start your own!
