Google Podcasts unveils episode search, driven by automated transcripts

At the RAIN Podcast Business Summit, Google’s Zack Reneau-Wedeen announces that Google Podcasts will have search results for episodes by the end of the week. Episode results are supported in all languages, and for many languages works by analysing automatically generated transcripts. This feature was first spotted within the app’s code in July last year.

Podtrac have restored total global download numbers to their industry rankings. They reveal that iHeartRadio is #1 global podcaster with 162,159,000 downloads in January, beating NPR’s 157m downloads. NPR remain #1 when judged on US unique users.

• iHeart was sitting at 135m in November, and 123m in December. Ron Burgundy launched in February.

Nick Quah analyses the recent Luminary launch announcement - there’s much that he considers a wild gamble. Meanwhile, The Verge covers Spotify’s strategy.

The New York Times has made five new hires for their audio division. The new hires include Lisa Chow from Gimlet’s StartUp, and Eric Krupke, who hosts, produces and edits FT News Briefing.

Podcast Review covers the On Air Fest in New York NY, USA.

The team behind Las Raras share their experience at the Google Podcasts creator program.

Cast, a web-based podcast production tool, has added noise reduction to its set of features.

Panoply Media has rebranded as Megaphone. “The new name reflects the company’s singular focus on podcast technology”.