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RadioPublic updates web player for a more flexible experience

Jake Shapiro, head of RadioPublic, the Boston-based podcast creation and distribution company, posted a note indicating that some upgrades have been introduced to the RadioPublic web player.

The main improvement to the user experience is a pop-down player that stays tucked in the corner of your browser tab while you move around the site. this enables listening and searching/discovery at the same time.

New rewind and fast-forward controls are added too — interestingly, you can go five seconds back or 30 seconds forward. There are many ways to handle those increments in each direction, and we have seen various combinations in podcatcher apps. Applause is due for the five-second rewind, useful for when you miss an important word. (On the other hand, if you want to replay and interesting sequence of a show, let’s say about a minute, you have to click that thing 12 times.)

The slim player module expands upward when you want, exposing more show information and sharing tools. An embed code is available, which is good for creators keen to get some viral distribution. You can also download the episode from the expanded panel — note that downloading is a secondary experience in the RadioPublic web experience.

Podcast discovery is a hand-holding experience at RadioPublic’s website. In addition to searching, which is done at the top of the page, there is an excellent browsing experience. The site curates new shows, new seasons, staff picks, and categories. The category selections expand out to sub-categories — for example, News & Current Events blows up to daily shows, US politics, in-depth news analysis, among others. The experience is clean, interesting, and the relatively small collection (compared to 400,000 shows on iTunes, for example) is comforting.

“We have other awesome updates queued up too,” RadioPublic says.

Brad Hill

One Comment

  1. Hi, Nate from RadioPublic here ????. Thanks for using our web player! In the article, you mentioned that it was difficult to locate the podcast search feature, so I wanted to let you know that we recently fixed this by adding a podcast search bar to the top of play.radiopublic.com. Please check out the updated version when you get the chance!

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