Google Podcasts will soon have a website (and it'll run on iOS too)

Google is prepping a web version of Google Podcasts that works on desktop and on iOS devices: and the player is already live. Here’s our podcast in Google Podcasts - on (any) Android phone, it opens the pre-installed Google Podcasts player as normal, while on iPhone or desktop, it now opens a web player. 9to5Google reports that it also syncs playback position to your Google account (and you can ask your Google smart speaker to “resume my podcast”). Still work in progress, it lacks any search, a method of subscribing, downloads, or a front page as yet.

• Since these new links are entirely backward-compatible with the old ones, and even now are better than the previous dumb versions, we’ve updated all our links from our podcast pages to point to this new player. Just search on Podnews for your favourite podcast, and click the Google Podcasts link.
• Our take: The availability of a capable web player, which works with Mobile Safari, may mean an iOS app for Google Podcasts is imminent. It should also mean that podcast links appear in all Google searches, not just Google searches run from Android devices. The web view also fixes compatibility issues with the Samsung Browser and Opera on Android devices too. This is all big, and good, news. Here’s an FAQ on Google Podcasts, and our availability page shows how many podcasts are on the platform (essentially, virtually all of them).

The RAIN Podcast Business Summit was a few weeks ago in New York; the website now contains audio from all of the individual sessions.

Mind the gap. Rebel Base Media worries about the gap between indie and “big” podcasting, and wonders if it’s a cause for concern.

This Sunday is #shareyourbudssunday, an opportunity for you to share your favourite podcast with a friend. Spread the word!

A new vertical podcast app has launched: bitcast·fm is a social podcast app, allowing you to tag, clap and share your favourite bits of tech podcasts. Also, Podbean has updated its app: it now works on Apple Carplay.

By default, our voice-activated servants Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Siri are all female voices. Q wants to change that, and have developed what they call the world’s first genderless voice.

IKEA is releasing cheap connected speakers, powered by Sonos. Symfonisk should be previewed early next month.

Two thirds of fashion brands have not yet discovered podcast advertising, says a new report from Magellan.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in Australia has launched NewsCast, a podcast unit.

You Probably Won’t Make a Lot of Money as an Independent Podcaster — Here are 5 Reasons You Should Do It Anyway, says the Bello Collective.