Your search results just got a lot louder. Google search results will now include podcast episodes based on your search results.
Podcast episodes will only be included when you are searching for a podcast topic on Google. For example, if you Google “podcasts about cooking,” you should get podcast episodes that deal with cooking in your search results.
When you click on the podcast episode, you will be forwarded to Google Podcasts where you can start listening to the podcast right away.
We tried it and the results were… interesting. As you can see, we typed in “true crime podcast” and got the following results.
Although the results in the top bar were ones that made sense, the podcast episodes we could actually listen to did not reflect the top results. In fact, the first episode in the list was an episode of the Ron Burgundy podcast, a comedy podcast featuring Will Ferrell voicing his iconic character from “Anchorman.” Also, the other two podcast episodes weren’t from the top results either. Needless to say, there are still a few kinks to work out in this update.
Google says the episodes are chosen based on the search engine’s “understanding of what’s being talked about on a podcast.” The fact that the Ron Burgundy Podcast episode that appeared first was literally called “true crime” probably led to it being the first result.
Google Podcasts and Google Assistant
Google is also planning to bring this new feature to Google Podcasts and Google Assistant. For Google Podcasts, you will be able to search for podcasts and podcast episodes, and listen right from your device! Also, your listening progress is synced, so you can stop and start again from the same point later!
Once it is implemented, if you ask your Google Assistant to, let’s say, play a podcast about cooking a turkey, it will offer a few possible episodes.
Wrapping up
Unfortunately, this feature is only available in English and for U.S. users as of now. However, that should change relatively soon.
As we have shown, this new feature is not perfect. We tried it a few more times and got mixed results. We tried Googling “cooking a turkey podcast” and the first option was an episode on turkey hunting.
However, when we Googled “mental health podcast” we got three episodes from the Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast, a podcast that dives into mental illness, addiction, and overall negativity. Clearly, it can work from time to time, but don’t be surprised if you have to fine-tune your searches a bit to get the best results. For example, once we Googled “murder podcast” rather than “true crime podcast,” we actually got more legit true-crime podcasts!
It might take awhile to perfect this new feature, but it is a welcome addition to our search results.
