The Multiverse
Hidden Frequency wrote:
The most direct solution is to give podcasts a similar level of interactivity as web pages and web video. By enabling users the ability to follow up on call to actions in a podcast you can measure their level of engagement and put a price tag on their actions.
This interactivity has to work in a way suitable to the medium. Podcasts are mainly an auditory medium, so this interactivity has to work in auditory way. You can’t expect someone listening to a podcast on their iPod or in their car to go to the device to look at a screen to interact. It has to work along the same lines they already do.
Podcast content needs to accept voice input from listeners.
This voice input could be used to let listeners choose which commercial to listen to, give permission for their email address to be used for a special offer or it could even be used to activate a purchase from with the podcast for additional content.
The capability for this is in the HTML5 specification for a “device”. Although not currently implemented, in the near future HTML5 will allow browsers to use your microphone or webcam to send audio or video back to a server. This will allow for a open, cross-platform way to add interactivity without third-party plugins. iPhones, Androids, Macs, PCs, Linux machines and any other system running an HTML5 browser with this implemented would be able to interact. Being a part of the HTML5 spec it would make it very easy for developers to add this into applications.
The hard part is done on the back end where a system has to interpret those voice commands. Fortunately, Google and other companies with voice recognition technologies are working on API’s to make this easier. The end result would be a small piece of code you’d embed that would send your voice input to a server that would then return text input (“Tell me more”, “Send me more information”, “Sign me up”, etc.).
I’m not entirely convinced that the reason why there is so little traffic on podcasts is because of the technology. With so many things vying for listener’s time, and only a finite number of people with fast enough broadband connection, is it so much to wonder why the market isn’t that huge?
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