Hear that? Google has just unveiled the latest addition to Google Labs, and it’s sure to crowd-pleaser for Android users. Dubbed Google Listen, the new project is an Android application that lets you quickly search through web audio content, which you can then directly download or stream to your phone. The app also acts as a podcast manager, allowing you to subscribe to audio feeds and download new content over the air.
Using the app is simple: you head to the search bar, then enter whatever it is you’re looking for, be it a specific podcast or a more general term like “tech”. Google will pull up the most relevant podcast and audio clips scattered across the web, which you can begin streaming immediately. If you’re interested in multiple matches you can build a queue, and Listen will automatically begin playing from your subscriptions once it reaches the end of the playlist. At this point the app is indexing “thousands” of content sources in English only, but Google intends to expand to other languages. The site’s FAQ also hints that it may index video in the future as well.
Here’s how Google describes Listen in the company’s blog post:
Listen quickly finds podcasts and web audio relevant to your searches, lets you stream over-the-air or download for later, and subscribe to fresh content from your favorite feeds and searches. In short, Listen helps organize the world of audio information and makes it easily accessible anytime, anywhere.
For now, Google Listen is only available on Android. This may be because the app is still early in development, but its omission from the iPhone may also stem from the issues Google has recently had getting its applications approved for the App Store — in the last few months, Apple has rejected a native application of Google Latitude, and also banned all Google Voice apps. Even without the recent controversy, Apple may well have smacked the app down for competing with iTunes’ podcasting functionality (other apps have been rejected for this in the past).
Whatever the case, Google has a sense of humor about the devices it plans to support. Oh Newton, we hardly knew ye.
Just another cool app that won’t end up in the App Store
Sounds really cool! Downloaded the app just now…
@sriray
http://www.arktan.com
Am not able to “Listen” because I don’t have an SD Card??? Why should I have an SD Card to listen to a stream?
Id imagine you’d need a good amount of space for caching. Streaming doesn’t mean nothing is being saved to your device.
The author of this article has missed the obvious comparison to the iPhone app “Shazam,” which has been around for a while now. Google’s app is cool, but hardly innovative.
Shazam is available on Android as well.
However, this app does something entirely different than Shazam. You might want to go through the article again.
I just love google. Their idea creating new wonderful apps every now and then is what makes folks love them.
I am sure, google will utilize this service properly and may add music streaming service to take away pandora, last.fm and blip.fm and itune’s audience.
If utilized properly and few music feature offered this can be very successful for google.
Another note to previous comment.
Google can also offer download service to give amazon and itunes some good competition.
Anyone, thinking google watch ( may be for movie download and search)???
What I like about google is Innovation. Lets try it out
Col app .. surely I m going to download this .. and use it .. simply loved it …. Njoy
Cheers,
Daina
Cool! Hope it is available in Spanish soon!
I really like the app, had to fight with some error messages but I like the idea…
quick note though, the app seems to be not available in all markets, a friend just told me that he can’t find it on the android market in germany
http://www.app-...search-android/
I go to the download page.. and can not find the word “Download Here” .. ?
I’m wating to use the function.
would someone explain what the newton reference is about?
Another great app from Google.
Interesting product, but it’s courious that many threads from
the google discussion group indicate a different user need than what is addressed by “listen” as it’s now:
http://groups.g...1ad6cb6f065cff#
http://groups.g...d9411d087b2615#
They show that what many need, is not a standalone sw but a web-centered approach.
Leave back the Itunes approach as we left back the Eudora mail, let’s do for the multimedia what the IMAP and the webmail did to our mail.
Nothing new. It basically indexes audio files in a seperate category. Please dont call it innovative.
It’s revolutionary.