Google is finally transcribing some podcasts… It made sense a long time ago and its happening for real. No april fools.
Google Podcasts is now automatically generating transcripts of episodes and is using them as metadata to help listeners search for shows, even if they don’t know the title or when it was published.
Its a shame its only for use in Google podcasts, but I guess nothing is free when it comes to tech corps. I remember thinking Google was going to start doing this when Google talked about podcasts, and what a time to start doing it I guess?
But there are questions about which podcasts are transcribed, is there a waitlist, how do you opt out and of course horrible errors from an automated process.
I just got my code working to do the same. It’s a bit of fun converting MP3s to the correct format.
The main problem I had is that a lot of podcasts don’t just contain voices, but quite elaborate editing of other content, such as clips from TV news reports or adverts.
But if Google starts doing it it’s going to save me 26p in API charges and they will be on the receiving end of complaints.
But, it is about 99% accurate with translations.
Look forward to seeing what happens… 🙂