You can now discover, see and listen to audio podcasts directly in search. This was part of the overall I/O keynote from Wednesday, but launched yesterday morning and you can I can see it on both desktop and mobile Google search.
Didn't we see podcasts in search a couple years ago? Yes, but that was just based on the Podcast structured data elements, not based on how Google transcribes the audio within the actual podcast's content. Previously, Google was not able to understand the words within a podcast, but now they can.
Here is what it looks like in desktop search:
Here it is in action from Google's Zack Reneau-Wedeen:
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. pic.twitter.com/29ohC7W9z8
— Zack Reneau-Wedeen (@ZackRW) May 9, 2019
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Update: If it is true that they are still not surfacing audio content through transcription, then nothing is new:
FWIW, just tested several podcasts, and I'm pretty sure Google isn't returning those results based on the transcript yet. Maybe in the future, but they only seem to trigger now for queries related to the podcast title, and maybe some episode titles. Not the transcript though.
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) May 10, 2019
