Google winds down feature that put playable podcasts directly in search results

Google confirmed it’s putting an end to a feature that allowed users to access playable podcasts directly from the Google Search results in favor of offering podcast recommendations. Officially launched in 2019, the feature surfaced podcasts when they matched a user’s query, including in those cases where a user specifically included the word “podcast” in their search terms. But a few weeks ago, some creators began noticing the podcast carousels had disappeared from Google Search results — and now the company is explaining why that’s the case.

The disappearance was first spotted by Podnews.net, which noted in January that searches for podcasts no longer returned any play buttons or links to Google Podcasts itself. When they tested the feature by searching for “history podcasts” they were only provided with a list of shows alongside links to podcast reviews, Apple Podcast pages and other places to stream.

At the time, Google simply told the site the feature was working “as intended.”

But a new announcement in Google Podcasts Manager indicates the feature is officially being shut down as of February 13.

“Google Search will stop showing podcast carousels by February 13. As a result, clicks and impressions in How people find your show will drop to zero after that date,” the message states. Podcasters are also being instructed to download any historical data they want to keep in advance of this final closure.

Of course, as many podcasters already discovered, their metrics had already declined as the feature was being wound down.

To be fair, playable podcasts in search wasn’t a remarkably well-executed product as it didn’t offer a way to do much more than click to play an episode. On YouTube’s Podcasts vertical, by comparison, podcast creators can create an index to the various parts of an episode, allowing users to jump directly to the section they wanted to hear. Plus, users can watch a video of the podcast, if the creator chooses to film.

YouTube has also proven to be more popular than Google Podcasts and other competitors. In a 2022 market survey of podcast listeners, for example, YouTube came out ahead of Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts as users’ preferred podcast platform. Though many podcast market analysis reports don’t consider YouTube when comparing the popularity of various podcast apps, one recent report by Buzzsprout at least suggests that using web browser as a listening app had a very small market share of just 3.5%. And that share had barely increased over the years, despite Google’s indexing of shows.

Reached for comment, Google explained its decision to wind down playable podcasts in Search will allow it to focus on a new addition instead.

“Our existing podcast features will gradually be replaced with a new, single feature, What to Podcast,” a spokesperson told us. They noted the feature is currently live on mobile for English users in the U.S. “This feature provides detailed information about podcasts, links to listen to shows on different platforms, and links to podcasters’ own websites, where available,” the spokesperson added.

According to the help documentation, these recommendations will be personalized to the user if they’re signed into their Google account and will factor in things like the user’s past searches and browsing history, saved podcasts and other podcast preferences. The personalized results can be turned off, however, if the user wants more generic suggestions, Google says.