Google Starts Indexing Podcasts for Search

Google will start indexing podcasts and individual episodes so relevant audio content can surface in search results, with users able to play episodes directly from Google. Podcasts have become increasingly important for users, and Google says it will index episodes based on their contextual content, not just titles, to improve search relevance. In demonstrations, users can listen to episodes inside Google, and can also save episodes for later listening. The rollout appears to start with U.S. podcast players, with other countries possibly following later. Sundar Pichai announced the initiative at Google I/O 2019, stating that such features help surfacing the right information in the right context. The article notes potential questions about whether integrated podcasts will offer analytics data. A specific example cited is the podcast 'This American Life' playable directly through Google.