[podzinger]

summary of the application

in another affirmation that audio and video are overtaking the written word for communication comes podzinger. a search engine that searches through audio and video podcasts for your typed in (yes, written text isn't dead quite yet) search queries. podzinger then conducts a "full text" search of the content of its database of podcasts and videocasts. the podzinger interface is familiar. not straying from the general format of google, yahoo-esque search results. results are listed by source if there are more than one result per source. you can sort either by date or relevance to your search string. your search terms are highlighted in the transcript. the player is simple to use and allows you to download the file, get the rss feed or subscribe to the channel in either itunes or yahoo!

personal effectiveness xxx

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podzinger is an impressive first attempt at "full text" search of audio and video content. i found it's speed and accuracy to be as strong as any text-only searches i've used. generally the playback was quick and clear.

a few negatives that I can see. the transcript does a good job, but isn't 100% accurate. it had a heck of a time with cavaliers' star lebron james' first name. 'brawn' and 'the brand' where the common best guesses. one of the funnier was "may be a sign a medal" instead of "may be a sentimental." the other negative i'd point to is that i'd prefer to have one universal player for all for the snippets, instead of an individual player for each source.

educational effectiveness xxx

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i honestly can't think of a realistic application for this product in the learning world, but that probably is a result of my not yet being literate in thinking about audio and video in this fashion. clearly text-only searches of the same nature have application in learning situations. so i'm going to give a tentative 3 e's for educational effectiveness assuming some use and acknowledging my 20th century brain.

coolness xxx

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podzinger is pretty cool. considering we couldn't do anything like this just a few years ago, it's a leap forward. however, the real coolness will come when we can search on sounds versus words (which is in the works) or on visual images versus words (which is also in the works).

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do you know a competitor to this application?

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if you know of a competitor to podzinger and it's not in the list below, feel free to add it to the list by filling out the form to the right. that will put it on my radar screen for possible review.

thanks!