AOL Launching Podcast Search Engine
On the heels of an announcement that AOL is offering a variety of Podcasting tools at AOL.com/podcasting, where listeners can “discover, experience and download some of the web’s most popular podcasts” which include KCRW’s “This Week in Tech,” AOL’s “Sports Bloggers Live,” and AOLRadio’s new Podcasting station; AOL is also getting into Podcast search. AOL is offering podcast search of thousands of podcasts on its Winamp 5.1 media player and is planning on launching a full service podcast search ability on AOL Search.
The Winamp search function is a new podcast directory called SHOUTcast Wire. AOL says that “The directory gives users the ability to discover, download and subscribe to hundreds of podcasts from podcasters around the world.”
For its AOL Search Engine Podcast Search offering, AOL will be working with TVEyes’ Podscope Search. The AOL Podcast Search will offer podcasts available through the integration of TVEyes’ Spoken Word Indexing. “This innovative search capability will allow fans to get audio search results and sample from tens of thousands of search-specific audio clips.” The AOL Podcast (Podscope) Search offering will be available “this fall”, which should be anytime soon.
“Podcasting has exploded in the past six months, and we’re excited to be at the forefront of this trend. Our goal is to make it easy for our visitors to discover some of the best of what’s available so they can enjoy the benefits of listening to great audio content on the go,” said Bill Wilson, Senior Vice President of Programming for AOL. “The programs we are featuring are great for novices and experts alike. Over the next few months, we will be expanding our podcast experience with more exclusive and original programming — from AOL and from partners — and adding more advanced search options.”
