Ever wished you could search for podcasts while you’re on the go? Well, Google has answered your wishes and has come up with a new app that will allow just that, but only on Android-powered phones so far.

Google Labs, the development arm of Google, has released a very early version of a new tool known as Google Listen.  The new tool will allow you to search, subscribe, download and stream audio from around the Web after you search for it.  This can include podcasts and streaming audio sources.

The concept is simple in that you can either search for podcasts you already know the name of by entering it in the search bar, or you can search on words that are related to it such as “technology”, and the app will return results for shows that might interest you.  You can either start listening to the shows immediately, or you can press and hold the button to get a list of other options of what you can do with the audio source.

If you feel like making a playlist of podcasts in an order of your choosing, you can set up a queue of them, and once you make it through that, it will switch over to your subscriptions.

This is something a lot of people, myself included, have been waiting for because nothing is more annoying than running out of podcasts you haven’t listened to while using the treadmill at the gym.  With this new tool you can keep a virtually endless supply of podcasts on your device, and you may even discover some you have never heard of by searching on related terms.

The only disappointment at this point is that it is only for Android phones, but that is sure to change with time.  This is still an early release, so that is a long way to go before the product is finalized and we see what other platforms it ends up on.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 at 3:14 am under Google.

Read more entries by Sean P. Aune.
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