Some YouTube users are finding their accounts are now coming with a new Podcast page with support for the page being nestled alongside the categories sections at the top of the Explore area.
According to 9to5Google, Google has been planning to add the Podcast page to YouTube as far back as March 2022 and began slow-rolling its introduction in late July to users.
Unfortunately, in typical Google fashion the company seems to have doubled its efforts on the Podcast front without actually coalescing with a team to help merge them.
Google pulled a similar move with all of its different iterations on its idea of chat services as well as when it folded Google Play Music into YouTube Music. For anyone forced to transition alongside Google’s seemingly scattered-brain execution knows how frustrating it is to invest in a product to then have the company come out with a similar, if not identical one, that requires all new reinvestment.
It now seems YouTube Podcast will follow a tragically similar process as other Google infinitives.
As with Chat, Google has created yet another desktop web and mobile Podcast product that isn’t communicating with its current web and mobile app of similar function.
In its current rudimentary phase, the YouTube Podcast destination offers similar thumbnail-based carousels of options as it does for videos, music, subscriptions, history and the rest. When it comes to sorting, the YouTube Podcast area does offer limited filters with playlists that include True Crime, Sports, Music, TV Film.
For anyone currently using the Google Podcast mobile app or desktop web app, the hours, days, months or years of curation aren’t present in this new YouTube Section. For those who might want to defend YouTube version of Podcast by saying, “its YouTube driven Podcast content,” even Podcast that have been subscribed to via YouTube are not the first things shown in the section.
Perhaps, even more frustrating is that the initial Podcast page isn’t even filtering for watched YouTube content to suggest similar entertainment. I watched a lot of comic book explanation videos, tech reviews and unboxings, DIY home improvement and stand up, but was presented with podcast about Baseball, MMA, and far-right talking heads.
As of now, it’s noteworthy to mention the YouTube Podcast section exists, but Google has a long way to go to produce something competitive to Spotify, or just useable for that matter.