Google Podcasts is indexing premium podcast feeds

• In the New Media Show over the weekend, Google Podcast product manager Zack Reneau-Weden was interviewed. He gave strong hints that Google Podcasts would be available on more platforms in future; discussed support for deep links into audio, like chapter marks, from show notes; and claimed that there were over two million podcasts indexed in Google Podcasts. (Apple claim about 600,000; he may have been including duplicate RSS feeds like those from Castbox, which are still partially visible in Google’s search index). He also made great play of Google’s personalised recommendations, rather than using editorial teams, which he claims doesn’t scale: particularly for the diverse groups of people who listen to podcasts. He also trailed new announcements at Podcast Movement.

• Here’s another reason why Google Podcasts may claim 2m podcasts: Google Podcasts is indexing paid-for versions of podcasts. A Redditor spotted, among others, premium podcasts from Randi Rhodes and Dan Savage appearing in Google Podcasts’ catalog. We’ve spotted these appearing in other podcast apps too (notably Castbox and Podbean).

  
  Aug 3 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.
  • If you don’t want a premium RSS feed appearing in Google’s search index, the correct way is to use an HTTP header of X-Robots-Tag: noindex - just like you’d hide it from Google’s main search index (because it is Google’s main search index).

• Audioboom claim that they’ve paid all outstanding money to podcasters. (?)

• The Australian Podcast Awards have emailed 'tips from award-winning podcasters' - the first in a series of Q&As with the winners. You can subscribe to the series over here.

• PR professionals are struggling to navigate the free-wheeling format of podcasts, says a PR company within a piece about radio in PR Week.

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• The Washington Post have engineered their own dynamic ad insertion tool for podcasts.

• Adswizz has also given a long interview to AdExchanger about the company’s future product plans.

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