11 ms·

Show HN: Podcat – Imdb for podcasts

401 points by hijp 11y ago

dmschulman 11y ago
Great idea! Feature request: I know that many podcasts I listen to have comprehensive show notes for each episode, it'd be great if there were an easy way to tie in or link to the information in the show notes on a per episode basis!
spencer48 11y ago
Sooo rad! I love the little illustrations that guide you through the site
frsandstone 11y ago
Love this! Feature request: Ability to see information on podcasts not currently in the RSS feed. Sometimes podcasts start to discontinue old episodes and being able to see this information is a pain point for me.
Aqwis 11y ago
So how do people get added to this site?
- atom-morgan 11y ago
  I'm already on it. iTunes/Sticher/libsyn. The only places that have access to mine.
  - Aqwis 11y ago
    I understand that you pull the podcasts from those sites, but I was specifically asking about the people.
    - hijp 11y ago
      I got a bunch of names from network sites and a bunch more I entered manually. If you host a podcast you can use the contact form and I'll add you to the system!
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
UnfalseDesign 11y ago
I love the concept. There still seems to be some room for improvement, though. When searching for "Tom Merritt", it only shows podcasts that "mention Tom Merritt" as opposed to podcasts he's been in or hosted. I plan on checking back in a couple months to see how it has come along. Love the idea, though!
- yes_or_gnome 11y ago
  Seeing this post, I did the same for 'Bill Burr'. For Burr's profile it has him listed as 'Hosts:' for 'Monday Morning Podcast' under his profile picture; As well as the mentions in the center. So, I repeated this for 'Tom Merritt' and you're right, it only has the the mentions; no 'Hosts:' section. It looks like the only way to contribute, currently, is through the contact form. https://www.podcat.com/contact https://www.podcat.com/contact
  - hijp 11y ago
    Thanks, I tried to differentiate between hosts and guests early on but there are too many false positives so I switched verbiage. Working on this though!
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
diminish 11y ago
Yeah, impressive... what percentage of the podcasts do you think you cover? I have searched for some programming related podcasts, but could'nt find..
- hijp 11y ago
  I'm not sure about the percentage but it's about 50k podcasts.
austinhutch 11y ago
The people search is something I've wanted for a while now, you've done a fantastic job in executing it!
MichaelApproved 11y ago
Great idea and something that's missing with podcasts. I took a look at some names and noticed you have missing data. For example, Christian Finnegan is a regular on Keith and The Girl podcast but he's only listed twice https://www.podcat.com/people/zXNOK2 https://www.podcat.com/people/zXNOK2 Here's his profile for our podcast http://www.keithandthegirl.com/guest/40/christian-finnegan http://www.keithandthegirl.com/guest/40/christian-finnegan You can scrape our guest list here http://www.keithandthegirl.com/guests/ http://www.keithandthegirl.com/guests/ or you can use our API endpoints to pull json content. Here's the doc but I can make tweaks, if you need https://github.com/KeithAndTheGirl/API/wiki/Keith-and-The-Girl-API-Version-2 https://github.com/KeithAndTheGirl/API/wiki/Keith-and-The-Gi...
- hijp 11y ago
  Wow super cool! Thanks!
- Splendor 11y ago
  I noticed a similar issue with Comedy Bang Bang. The host (Scott Aukerman) and the main guest (Paul F. Tompkins) are missing from the most recent episode. https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/QAgBjs-comedy-bang-bang-the-podcast/episodes/quvJbs-407-paul-f-tompkins-dan-ahdoot-drew-tarver-mandell-maughan-ryan-gaul-tawny-newsome-tim-baltz https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/QAgBjs-comedy-bang-bang-the-...
  - hijp 11y ago
    whoops, i'll take a look.
    - Splendor 11y ago
      BTW, as a big fan of podcasts I love the idea and I hope you keep up development on it.
- fluxquanta 11y ago
  Off topic, but it's interesting to see that you're active on HN, as I certainly remember you on the forums and on the show. I used to be a big fan of KATG from about 2008 to 2012 but fell off the bandwagon. As far as podcast communities go, however, it always did seem like you guys had a good handle on using the web for interacting with fans and established a decent setup for monetizing the product which a lot of other podcasts lack. So...good job.
sf_rob 11y ago
Feature Request: Episode ratings. This is awesome!
- sowhatquestion 11y ago
  Seconded. Rating TV episodes on IMDb is a very useful feature, especially now that it supports sorting episodes by rating, e.g., http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098904/eprate?ref_=tt_eps_rhs_sm http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098904/eprate?ref_=tt_eps_rhs_s...
- eric001 11y ago
  +1
- Strom 11y ago
  This is the main feature that I use on IMDb. Rate stuff myself and explore based on rankings. Thus IMDb would be pretty much the last thing I would compare podcat to personally.
- dexterdog 11y ago
  But please don't do x/10. Everybody's 10/point scale is totally different.
mrborgen 11y ago
Great! The search on Apple's own app is just horrible. I'm gonna use this one for sure. Well done!
GrayCodex 11y ago
Wow. Thanks for filling up such an obvious gap in content database. Loving the topic/mention based search, looking forward to great things in this aspect. Although first requested feature would be ability to sign, make profile for listened podcasts and preferably add notes/review/ discussion about a specific episode. Thanks for the product. Looking forward to its growth.
- apranav19 11y ago
  I agree. A nice to have feature could attempt to derive the audio transcription and index podcasts based on keywords from that.
pkghost 11y ago
Awesome work! Feature request: swipe through pages of recommend podcasts on the front page (would be especially sweet on mobile).
michaelmior 11y ago
This looks great. It would be awesome if you could add a direct link to the XML feed for the podcast since it's a pain to pull it out[0] and super useful for those not using iTunes. [0] https://gist.github.com/aderyabin/4479240 https://gist.github.com/aderyabin/4479240
- hijp 11y ago
  good idea!
nelmaven 11y ago
Looks interesting but there's no feedback for empty search results.
Abstain 11y ago
Definitely something I can see myself using on a regular basis. Awesome work.
megido 11y ago
Would love to see reviews/ratings of podcasts
metasean 11y ago
Funny automation fail: The tech podcasts I listen to frequently end with recommendations. One of the recommendations in the latest JavaScript Jabber is for a Taylor Swift album. Podcat attributes the entire episode to Taylor Swift‽ JJ Episode Details: https://devchat.tv/js-jabber/202-jsj-donejs-canjs-with-justin-meyer https://devchat.tv/js-jabber/202-jsj-donejs-canjs-with-justi... Podcat Episode Details: https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/D13bdo-javascript-jabber/episodes/k8zPen-202-jsj-donejs-canjs-with-justin-meyer https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/D13bdo-javascript-jabber/epi... --- Request: Since most of my podcasts are technical (as I assume many other HN readers' podcasts are) many of them also have video. Sometimes only specific episodes have a video component (e.g. Lately in JavaScript), and sometimes every episode has a video component (e.g. JavaScript Air). All of the ones I listen to that have video versions also provide an audio-only version, but the host or guests occasionally still refer to something on the screen. So, it would be nice to be able to filter on episodes that do or don't have a video version.
- hijp 11y ago
  Thank you! I definitely forgot to account for video podcasts, I haven't really followed any since diggnation ended!
heywire 11y ago
Something strange is going on with scrolling. When I scroll quickly down the page, it jumps back to the top. Looks like a great resource, looking forward to checking it out in detail later!
hijp 11y ago
creator here: I'd love to speak to anyone that has their own podcast to find out what you need. feel free to email me at podcastcatalog@gmail.com thank you for all the feedback and support!
- masukomi 11y ago
  simple marketing 101 Use an email address at your domain... you can easily have it forward to gmail behind the scenes, and replies will look as if they're coming from your domain. Can you imagine people at IMBD having email addresses on the gmail domain?
  - hijp 11y ago
    Interesting, seeing a gmail domain gives me more confidence that my email will get to the recipient.
- hanniabu 11y ago
  How did you go about creating this? As in how do you find out about all these podcasts, topics, who's in it, etc?
mijustin 11y ago
Wow. The search is surprisingly fast and accurate (even when searching for people).
- prashantganti 11y ago
  Search is not accurate. I typed kids and it throws up "The Kiss Me Quick's Erotica: Sexy Stories with Rose Caraway"
brndn 11y ago
I would love a way to browse through podcast categories. From the homepage, I was looking for a 'tech' link or something to find some that would interest me. Great start though. Good luck.
- zzzmarcus 11y ago
  I agree. Search results seem to be limited to 6 and even more problematics is that I find myself at a loss for exactly what to search for. Lots of promise here, but as it is, it's pretty hard to discover new content. Keep it up!
Dobbs 11y ago
Its missing bikeshed.fm and I don't see a way to add things.
- xd1936 11y ago
  https://www.podcat.com/contact https://www.podcat.com/contact
tsyd 11y ago
I like how the people behind the podcasts, the hosts and frequent guests are catalogued. It's an interesting way to browse for episodes and podcasts that I haven't seen done anywhere else. Shameless plug: I've been working on a similar project (https://podcast.party/ https://podcast.party/) that also lets you subscribe to podcasts to keep track of which episodes you have played/unplayed.
- zzzmarcus 11y ago
  Just spent a few minutes playing around with your site. Very nice. I really like how your discovery lists show the last time the podcast was updated, the number of episodes, and the average length. Filtering on those attributes would be an awesome feature. Nicely done.
  - throwathrowaway 11y ago
    Is there any way to filter by the values? Namely average length and frequency? Other than by eyeballing, of course.
TillE 11y ago
Love the idea, but this seems like it would require a ton of work for it to be remotely comprehensive. In addition to the missing data, the false positives are an issue. First podcast I checked was Second Captains, which incorrectly lists Rafael Nadal, Donald Trump, Mike Tyson, Cristiano Ronaldo, etc as guests.
jkot 11y ago
Search does not work for me. I have malware filters, so check domain its loaded from
yeukhon 11y ago
Bug #1: Instagram of https://www.podcat.com/people/7IkZED-bobby-lee https://www.podcat.com/people/7IkZED-bobby-lee is assumed to be https://www.instagram.com/BobbyLee/ https://www.instagram.com/BobbyLee/.
johns 11y ago
Here's a good data source for you http://interviewed.io/ http://interviewed.io/
slg 11y ago
This is something that I have wanted to exist for a long time, but is a pretty massive undertaking because there are so many small niche podcasts. The podcasts I spot checked all looked fairly accurate, although you do need to be careful with common names. Jordan Morris [1] is the name of a podcaster/comedian, a soccer player, and a singer. All of their profiles are combined into one. In order to separate those out you would need to do some analysis on the genre of the podcasts. The podcasts that talk about sports are probably talking about the soccer player, etc. It is also tough to rely on common lookup tools like Google because the Jordan Morris that is a podcaster is probably the least famous of the three but is clearly the most relevant for your site. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Morris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Morris
- gramasaurous 11y ago
  Adding to this, there seems to be something weird going on as Jordan Morris is only listed as being on 1 episode of Jordan, Jesse Go! (which he is the co-host of)[0]. Something seems to be off in how people are attached to episodes/podcasts as well. Definitely more analysis needs to be done - which makes you realize how much more complex of a problem this really is! [0]https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/4VD1My-jordan-jesse-go/person/b8IRhO-jordan-morris https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/4VD1My-jordan-jesse-go/perso...
xd1936 11y ago
This is fantastic! I wish I could add missing info, like a wiki.
Kiro 11y ago
Where is the Top 250? I've never listened to a podcast and want to listen to the best one there is.
- florianletsch 11y ago
  Still building up a user base so we can have better results, but here is the top list of our platform: https://podcastprofile.com/top https://podcastprofile.com/top (the project is in its early stages, basically the result of a hackathon we had a few weeks back)
doctorcroc 11y ago
Awesome product. I love that podcasts are getting more attention, with companies creating discovery platforms like http://producthunt.com/podcasts http://producthunt.com/podcasts. One suggestion - would be really nice to have categories for podcasts. Much like movies, it is difficult for niche/indie movies to compete with the super well funded hollywood productions. For example, we produce a software podcast (http://softwareengineeringdaily.com http://softwareengineeringdaily.com) and it would be a huge benefit to be able to search for Tech specific shows and see what's relevant to you. Keep up the good work!
NoMoreNicksLeft 11y ago
Dammit, suckered in by the headline. I need a database with metadata for Plex, but other than the image itself, there's nothing here. No blurb, no genre, nada. Will say that I thought I had it stumped with one radio program, but I typed in the name and it came up. Is this thing going to have a rest api or something?
bosie 11y ago
I got an error when I tried to look at a podcast: https://www.podcat.com/search/955198749 https://www.podcat.com/search/955198749 "Sorry, but something went wrong."
lfx 11y ago
Neat site! I was looking for something similar for a while. Feature Request: Episode date in search listing.
yk 11y ago
I really like the idea, but (to give some feedback) I don't think one can call anything the imdb for x without a best/worst 250. And ratings and explore by category and I want a pony... (Also the site is somewhat unfriendly for NoScript users, apparently one has to allow apple.com to get search working, which is counter intuitive. But of course noscript users should expect some trouble.)
- therealdrag0 11y ago
  Agreed. For me IMDB is all about ratings, and one of the best (only?) advanced media searches out there (http://www.imdb.com/search/title http://www.imdb.com/search/title).
- r0m4n0 11y ago
  Also piggy backing this, I agree. I clicked and searched for my favorite podcast thinking I would find a rating!
- brownbat 11y ago
  Agreed, though I want this more than I want the imdb for podcasts. Ratings and recommendations would be nifty I guess, but I've wanted a one stop shop for podcasts with a clean and consistent layout for a long time. I mean, one that doesn't make me install a bloated program that I don't want to use. This one's checked off, my other podcast wishlist items: 1) autotag my podcasts by parsing their RSS feeds 2) a head unit in my car that would connect to my wifi from my driveway or garage, then automatically download new episodes of subscribed podcasts every night or morning. Ideally I could manage my subscriptions on my PC through a website or through a settings page the car offers to my network, so I'm not forced to use the limited controls of a car to manage podcast subscriptions. (Maybe everyone else solves this problem by just keeping an iPhone with unlimited data in their cup holder.)
  - uean 11y ago
    Exactly - I run a wifi range extender in the car that connects to my home wireless when it is parked out front of the house, and an iPod that connects to that wireless to do syncing. It's magically dorky, and has spawned friends into getting repeaters for mesh networking and playing Lan games on mobile devices while roadtripping, which is equally amazing. Staying on topic - this site is great so far and looking forward to seeing more features added. Really agree that a top X by category and 'similar to' rating system would make this pretty killer.
xasos 11y ago
This is awesome! I'm sure if you open up the API, many people would want if for their respective players (this would be awesome with Overcast.fm, for example)
bornwithabeard 11y ago
wow, this is terrific. It's something often discussed with friends that someone needs to do this - but we never offered ourselves up due the absolutely massive undertaking it would be. Super excited that someone's done this though. I hope the site keeps growing - It'd be great to have some of the suggestions already made to be part of it. the "top 250" would be interesting and for me personally, I'm not sure how much faith I'd put into it: I'm quite finicky when it comes to podcasts. I have a couple of podcasts that I listen to religiously, but I also have some podcasts that I subscribe to, but would only download depending on the guest for that episode, and then there's some podcasts that are right up my alley, interest wise, but something as simple as one of the person's voices/accent is so off-putting that I disregard it completely. With movies, it's easy to say "that movie isn't for me, but I can understand the praise it's receiving", but I don't think podcasts really work that way
rpwilcox 11y ago
Neat idea! Missing some pretty obvious data: probably should make sure Adam Curry and Dave Winer's stuff is complete, for example. (Although I guess you're an old foggy podcast listener when you search for the "Daily Source Code"...)
1123581321 11y ago
I'm noticing many omissions and errors from my friends' podcasts (which aren't all that popular, so understandable.) Rather than list the issues here, I'm wondering what's the best way they can improve the data for their shows and personas overall.
- hijp 11y ago
  Send me an email at podcastcatalog@gmail.com, I'd love to talk to you (or them).
cubano 11y ago
I've been enjoying podcasts for many years now, so this seems like a wonderful resource...great work guys/gals! If anyone is looking looking for something different and educational and entertaining, check out Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. It's amazing, and I've been a fan of his for a decade now and he keeps getting better and better.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
throwathrowaway 11y ago
I hope this site catches on! Is there any tool to search for podcast by length or format? I really like the Writing Excuses podcast (from suggestions on HN) and would like to find others in the same format on different topics. Short podcasts with well thought out analysis and answers.
giancarlostoro 11y ago
Weird, website seems to be blocked by my schools network apparently having to do with Usenet. No idea what that's about.
Jordrok 11y ago
Neat idea, I'd love to see this take off. I imagine it's going to take a lot of work to reach Imdb-level comprehensiveness though. Until a certain threshold is met, it's going to be hard to beat Googling (person's name) + podcast. Here's my anecdata: Searched for John Oliver and got no relevant results. Searched for Andy Zaltzman and got his cricket podcast. Searched for The Bugle and found it, but no links to the aforementioned hosts. Searched for John Bain and got his picture + a mention from a podcast I didn't recognize. Searched for TotalBiscuit and found The Co-optional Podcast and other CynicalBrit stuff. Hmm...I wonder how many bits of my own identifying info I just leaked there... Oh well.
caoilte 11y ago
Isn't this just a thin skin on iTunes?
cjensen 11y ago
Overcast[1] has an index. At least for the incredibly small subset of podcasts I looked at, Overcast is a more complete index. Podcat does not seem to get the names of podcasters correct. For example, searching for Marco Arment links to only some episodes of 'Build and Analyze', which is Arment's old podcast where he appeared in 100% of episodes. Podcat appears to index names if the given name is name-checked in a podcast's episode text. That's going to be a spam target. Potentially Podcat could be a great thing. Interesting work. [1] https://overcast.fm https://overcast.fm
zeemonkee3 11y ago
This looks cool, very fast search and I like the idea of referencing names (presumably through name-checking of episode summaries?). I worked on a side project a few months ago[1] as I just wanted my own personal webplayer. It's OK, but has the limitation that it only works with podcasts that have discoverable RSS feeds; many are behind the walled gardens of iTunes or Soundcloud or other proprietary platforms unfortunately. As it's really to scratch an itch for my own needs it doesn't do ratings/comments/recommendations which would be on my todo list for a more complete app. Are you planning on adding these features in the near future? [1] https://podbaby.me https://podbaby.me
sandebert 11y ago
It's broken on mobile, right? I tried searching for Patio11, because... well, Patio11. :-) Didn't see a submit button so I pressed enter. Nothing happened. Tried a couple of times, including accessing the page by "Request desktop site". Same result. Tested with Chrome 49.
- tgb 11y ago
  Same on desktop, but the problem is that nothing comes up for patio11 and when nothing comes up it doesn't display any results at all. Try a different search and it should display the results below the search bar.
- patio11 11y ago
  Try "Kalzumeus" or "Patrick McKenzie", although I will definitely take a whack at my metadata in response to this comment. (I use "Perhaps better known as patio11" as a self-deprecating joke and forget that it is actually literally true when making consequential decisions like e.g. metadata, registering domain names, etc. Someone got patio11.com and transferred it to me, shocked that I hadn't thought of that. I'm shocked, too.)
clorisu 11y ago
I'd -really- like this idea, if only it allowed saving podcasts, rating them, and reviewing them.
addedlovely 11y ago
Nice one! I made myself a slightly lighter, curated version, a few months back...bit unfinished, but one massive json object containing hours of goodness. http://longwave.addedlovely.com http://longwave.addedlovely.com
ericrius3 11y ago
I love this so much.... finding certain podcasts have changed my life so much, and I've been wanting something like this for a long time. Thank you! I really look forward to watching this app evolve!
weisser 11y ago
Fantastic! Where's the ability to track what you've listened to so far?
badthingfactory 11y ago
This is well executed. I attempted to build something very similar about a year ago. I had a decent prototype, but found it rather difficult to aggregate a complete listing of podcasts scattered around the internet. The world needs a centralized podcast app other than iTunes. Keep up the good work!
mrmondo 11y ago
Fantastic! I've wanted this for ages! It'd be cool if you could work to integrate with overcast somehow?
Falcon9 11y ago
I want this website so badly! Please keep it up and continuing to find a way to make it more complete. Right now I can find appearances by Daniel Negreanu by searching in iTunes, but not through Podcat. Also it would be awesome if there were a way to include information beyond the RSS feed of a podcast - for example Arcade Outsiders only includes information from the most recent 20 or so episodes, though there have been 89+ episodes overall which are all still available with information on the Arcade Outsiders website. Another possible feature: strip out the repetitive portions of episode descriptions on the results page when the displayed text is always the same for all the results on the page.
chao123 11y ago
The criteria for a good podcast in my perspective should support us to Create custom stations of your favorite radio and podcast that update automatically when new episodes become available. At the same time, you can Use the On-The-Go playlist to play just the episodes you want. I’m addicted to CastBox APP downloaded from Google Play cuz I really enjoy the bus time with audio books, breaking news during breakfast and free music for my bedtime. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.podcasts https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.po...
JayeshSidhwani 11y ago
Great product. Wish it had better discovery. A simple filter-enabled page of all podcasts will make it more usable!
VLM 11y ago
Needs a synonym list in the search. For example, there's at least two Mike/Micheal Duncan's, one does history podcasting (history of rome, revolutions, both awesome) and the other I'm not familiar with but apparently does something biblical. The history podcaster does not show up as a person but the preacher does. The history podcasts show up for mike duncan but not micheal duncan. The history podcaster is "kinda famous ish" in the the field of history podcasting and keeps getting interviewed on other shows, pretty sure he was on "life of caesar" and a couple others, but those either don't show up or haven't been crawled by the search.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
babubabu 11y ago
Recently changed my iPhone to android, CastBox app is the best podcast for android I have ever use! Numerous free music, radios and audio books! I watch the podcast on youtube when i back home, but the way to office and bedtime podcast, i prefer CastBox APP more. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.podcasts https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.po...
babubabu 11y ago
BTW, CastBox app is the best podcast for android I have ever use! free music, radios and audio books! the way to office and bedtime podcast, i prefer castbox app much for streaming and offline listen. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.podcasts https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.po...
tmschl 11y ago
Yes!! So useful. Thanks for doing this, excited for it to grow and become even more functional
darknessislight 11y ago
How can it be Imdb for podcasts without ability to rate or comment podcasts or even episodes?
babubabu 11y ago
Just wanna find a Podcasts app for my kids hope it’s an amazing way to discover, subscribe to, and play your favorite podcast. My must-have point is numerous free audio and video radio podcast in the Featured tab, or browse Top Charts to see what's hot right now. So that I can add favorite radio and podcast to personal stations that stay up to date when new episodes become available. I wanna try CastBox APP on Google Play, cuz there are a lot of audios and musics for family time and kids. any suggestion? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.podcasts https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.po...
babubabu 11y ago
The criteria for a good podcast in my perspective should support us to Create custom stations of your favorite radio and podcast that update automatically when new episodes become available. At the same time, you can Use the On-The-Go playlist to play just the episodes you want. I’m addicted to CastBox APP downloaded from Google Play cuz I really enjoy the bus time with audio books, breaking news during breakfast and free music for my bedtime. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.podcasts https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.po...
babubabu 11y ago
I myself is a busy guy with frequent business trips, always need a podcast app on my Android phone to save favorite episodes such as particular music, audios that I prefer while I am on my way. CastBox APP is the one I am addicted to recently, highly recommended download it from google play. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.podcasts https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.po...

401 points by hijp 11y ago

Great idea! Feature request: I know that many podcasts I listen to have comprehensive show notes for each episode, it'd be great if there were an easy way to tie in or link to the information in the show notes on a per episode basis!

spencer48 11y ago

Sooo rad! I love the little illustrations that guide you through the site

frsandstone 11y ago

Love this! Feature request: Ability to see information on podcasts not currently in the RSS feed. Sometimes podcasts start to discontinue old episodes and being able to see this information is a pain point for me.

Aqwis 11y ago

So how do people get added to this site?

atom-morgan 11y ago
I'm already on it. iTunes/Sticher/libsyn. The only places that have access to mine.
- Aqwis 11y ago
  I understand that you pull the podcasts from those sites, but I was specifically asking about the people.
  - hijp 11y ago
    I got a bunch of names from network sites and a bunch more I entered manually. If you host a podcast you can use the contact form and I'll add you to the system!

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

UnfalseDesign 11y ago

I love the concept. There still seems to be some room for improvement, though. When searching for "Tom Merritt", it only shows podcasts that "mention Tom Merritt" as opposed to podcasts he's been in or hosted. I plan on checking back in a couple months to see how it has come along. Love the idea, though!

yes_or_gnome 11y ago
Seeing this post, I did the same for 'Bill Burr'. For Burr's profile it has him listed as 'Hosts:' for 'Monday Morning Podcast' under his profile picture; As well as the mentions in the center. So, I repeated this for 'Tom Merritt' and you're right, it only has the the mentions; no 'Hosts:' section. It looks like the only way to contribute, currently, is through the contact form. https://www.podcat.com/contact https://www.podcat.com/contact
- hijp 11y ago
  Thanks, I tried to differentiate between hosts and guests early on but there are too many false positives so I switched verbiage. Working on this though!
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

diminish 11y ago

Yeah, impressive... what percentage of the podcasts do you think you cover? I have searched for some programming related podcasts, but could'nt find..

hijp 11y ago
I'm not sure about the percentage but it's about 50k podcasts.

austinhutch 11y ago

The people search is something I've wanted for a while now, you've done a fantastic job in executing it!

MichaelApproved 11y ago

Great idea and something that's missing with podcasts. I took a look at some names and noticed you have missing data. For example, Christian Finnegan is a regular on Keith and The Girl podcast but he's only listed twice https://www.podcat.com/people/zXNOK2 https://www.podcat.com/people/zXNOK2 Here's his profile for our podcast http://www.keithandthegirl.com/guest/40/christian-finnegan http://www.keithandthegirl.com/guest/40/christian-finnegan You can scrape our guest list here http://www.keithandthegirl.com/guests/ http://www.keithandthegirl.com/guests/ or you can use our API endpoints to pull json content. Here's the doc but I can make tweaks, if you need https://github.com/KeithAndTheGirl/API/wiki/Keith-and-The-Girl-API-Version-2 https://github.com/KeithAndTheGirl/API/wiki/Keith-and-The-Gi...

hijp 11y ago
Wow super cool! Thanks!
Splendor 11y ago
I noticed a similar issue with Comedy Bang Bang. The host (Scott Aukerman) and the main guest (Paul F. Tompkins) are missing from the most recent episode. https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/QAgBjs-comedy-bang-bang-the-podcast/episodes/quvJbs-407-paul-f-tompkins-dan-ahdoot-drew-tarver-mandell-maughan-ryan-gaul-tawny-newsome-tim-baltz https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/QAgBjs-comedy-bang-bang-the-...
- hijp 11y ago
  whoops, i'll take a look.
  - Splendor 11y ago
    BTW, as a big fan of podcasts I love the idea and I hope you keep up development on it.
fluxquanta 11y ago
Off topic, but it's interesting to see that you're active on HN, as I certainly remember you on the forums and on the show. I used to be a big fan of KATG from about 2008 to 2012 but fell off the bandwagon. As far as podcast communities go, however, it always did seem like you guys had a good handle on using the web for interacting with fans and established a decent setup for monetizing the product which a lot of other podcasts lack. So...good job.

sf_rob 11y ago

Feature Request: Episode ratings. This is awesome!

sowhatquestion 11y ago
Seconded. Rating TV episodes on IMDb is a very useful feature, especially now that it supports sorting episodes by rating, e.g., http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098904/eprate?ref_=tt_eps_rhs_sm http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098904/eprate?ref_=tt_eps_rhs_s...
eric001 11y ago
+1
Strom 11y ago
This is the main feature that I use on IMDb. Rate stuff myself and explore based on rankings. Thus IMDb would be pretty much the last thing I would compare podcat to personally.
dexterdog 11y ago
But please don't do x/10. Everybody's 10/point scale is totally different.

mrborgen 11y ago

Great! The search on Apple's own app is just horrible. I'm gonna use this one for sure. Well done!

GrayCodex 11y ago

Wow. Thanks for filling up such an obvious gap in content database. Loving the topic/mention based search, looking forward to great things in this aspect. Although first requested feature would be ability to sign, make profile for listened podcasts and preferably add notes/review/ discussion about a specific episode. Thanks for the product. Looking forward to its growth.

apranav19 11y ago
I agree. A nice to have feature could attempt to derive the audio transcription and index podcasts based on keywords from that.

pkghost 11y ago

Awesome work! Feature request: swipe through pages of recommend podcasts on the front page (would be especially sweet on mobile).

michaelmior 11y ago

This looks great. It would be awesome if you could add a direct link to the XML feed for the podcast since it's a pain to pull it out[0] and super useful for those not using iTunes. [0] https://gist.github.com/aderyabin/4479240 https://gist.github.com/aderyabin/4479240

hijp 11y ago
good idea!

nelmaven 11y ago

Looks interesting but there's no feedback for empty search results.

Abstain 11y ago

Definitely something I can see myself using on a regular basis. Awesome work.

megido 11y ago

Would love to see reviews/ratings of podcasts

metasean 11y ago

Funny automation fail: The tech podcasts I listen to frequently end with recommendations. One of the recommendations in the latest JavaScript Jabber is for a Taylor Swift album. Podcat attributes the entire episode to Taylor Swift‽ JJ Episode Details: https://devchat.tv/js-jabber/202-jsj-donejs-canjs-with-justin-meyer https://devchat.tv/js-jabber/202-jsj-donejs-canjs-with-justi... Podcat Episode Details: https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/D13bdo-javascript-jabber/episodes/k8zPen-202-jsj-donejs-canjs-with-justin-meyer https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/D13bdo-javascript-jabber/epi... --- Request: Since most of my podcasts are technical (as I assume many other HN readers' podcasts are) many of them also have video. Sometimes only specific episodes have a video component (e.g. Lately in JavaScript), and sometimes every episode has a video component (e.g. JavaScript Air). All of the ones I listen to that have video versions also provide an audio-only version, but the host or guests occasionally still refer to something on the screen. So, it would be nice to be able to filter on episodes that do or don't have a video version.

hijp 11y ago
Thank you! I definitely forgot to account for video podcasts, I haven't really followed any since diggnation ended!

heywire 11y ago

Something strange is going on with scrolling. When I scroll quickly down the page, it jumps back to the top. Looks like a great resource, looking forward to checking it out in detail later!

hijp 11y ago

creator here: I'd love to speak to anyone that has their own podcast to find out what you need. feel free to email me at podcastcatalog@gmail.com thank you for all the feedback and support!

masukomi 11y ago
simple marketing 101 Use an email address at your domain... you can easily have it forward to gmail behind the scenes, and replies will look as if they're coming from your domain. Can you imagine people at IMBD having email addresses on the gmail domain?
- hijp 11y ago
  Interesting, seeing a gmail domain gives me more confidence that my email will get to the recipient.
hanniabu 11y ago
How did you go about creating this? As in how do you find out about all these podcasts, topics, who's in it, etc?

mijustin 11y ago

Wow. The search is surprisingly fast and accurate (even when searching for people).

prashantganti 11y ago
Search is not accurate. I typed kids and it throws up "The Kiss Me Quick's Erotica: Sexy Stories with Rose Caraway"

brndn 11y ago

I would love a way to browse through podcast categories. From the homepage, I was looking for a 'tech' link or something to find some that would interest me. Great start though. Good luck.

zzzmarcus 11y ago
I agree. Search results seem to be limited to 6 and even more problematics is that I find myself at a loss for exactly what to search for. Lots of promise here, but as it is, it's pretty hard to discover new content. Keep it up!

Dobbs 11y ago

Its missing bikeshed.fm and I don't see a way to add things.

xd1936 11y ago
https://www.podcat.com/contact https://www.podcat.com/contact

tsyd 11y ago

I like how the people behind the podcasts, the hosts and frequent guests are catalogued. It's an interesting way to browse for episodes and podcasts that I haven't seen done anywhere else. Shameless plug: I've been working on a similar project (https://podcast.party/ https://podcast.party/) that also lets you subscribe to podcasts to keep track of which episodes you have played/unplayed.

zzzmarcus 11y ago
Just spent a few minutes playing around with your site. Very nice. I really like how your discovery lists show the last time the podcast was updated, the number of episodes, and the average length. Filtering on those attributes would be an awesome feature. Nicely done.
- throwathrowaway 11y ago
  Is there any way to filter by the values? Namely average length and frequency? Other than by eyeballing, of course.

TillE 11y ago

Love the idea, but this seems like it would require a ton of work for it to be remotely comprehensive. In addition to the missing data, the false positives are an issue. First podcast I checked was Second Captains, which incorrectly lists Rafael Nadal, Donald Trump, Mike Tyson, Cristiano Ronaldo, etc as guests.

jkot 11y ago

Search does not work for me. I have malware filters, so check domain its loaded from

yeukhon 11y ago

Bug #1: Instagram of https://www.podcat.com/people/7IkZED-bobby-lee https://www.podcat.com/people/7IkZED-bobby-lee is assumed to be https://www.instagram.com/BobbyLee/ https://www.instagram.com/BobbyLee/.

johns 11y ago

Here's a good data source for you http://interviewed.io/ http://interviewed.io/

slg 11y ago

This is something that I have wanted to exist for a long time, but is a pretty massive undertaking because there are so many small niche podcasts. The podcasts I spot checked all looked fairly accurate, although you do need to be careful with common names. Jordan Morris [1] is the name of a podcaster/comedian, a soccer player, and a singer. All of their profiles are combined into one. In order to separate those out you would need to do some analysis on the genre of the podcasts. The podcasts that talk about sports are probably talking about the soccer player, etc. It is also tough to rely on common lookup tools like Google because the Jordan Morris that is a podcaster is probably the least famous of the three but is clearly the most relevant for your site. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Morris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Morris

gramasaurous 11y ago
Adding to this, there seems to be something weird going on as Jordan Morris is only listed as being on 1 episode of Jordan, Jesse Go! (which he is the co-host of)[0]. Something seems to be off in how people are attached to episodes/podcasts as well. Definitely more analysis needs to be done - which makes you realize how much more complex of a problem this really is! [0]https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/4VD1My-jordan-jesse-go/person/b8IRhO-jordan-morris https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/4VD1My-jordan-jesse-go/perso...

xd1936 11y ago

This is fantastic! I wish I could add missing info, like a wiki.

Kiro 11y ago

Where is the Top 250? I've never listened to a podcast and want to listen to the best one there is.

florianletsch 11y ago
Still building up a user base so we can have better results, but here is the top list of our platform: https://podcastprofile.com/top https://podcastprofile.com/top (the project is in its early stages, basically the result of a hackathon we had a few weeks back)

doctorcroc 11y ago

Awesome product. I love that podcasts are getting more attention, with companies creating discovery platforms like http://producthunt.com/podcasts http://producthunt.com/podcasts. One suggestion - would be really nice to have categories for podcasts. Much like movies, it is difficult for niche/indie movies to compete with the super well funded hollywood productions. For example, we produce a software podcast (http://softwareengineeringdaily.com http://softwareengineeringdaily.com) and it would be a huge benefit to be able to search for Tech specific shows and see what's relevant to you. Keep up the good work!

NoMoreNicksLeft 11y ago

Dammit, suckered in by the headline. I need a database with metadata for Plex, but other than the image itself, there's nothing here. No blurb, no genre, nada. Will say that I thought I had it stumped with one radio program, but I typed in the name and it came up. Is this thing going to have a rest api or something?

bosie 11y ago

I got an error when I tried to look at a podcast: https://www.podcat.com/search/955198749 https://www.podcat.com/search/955198749 "Sorry, but something went wrong."

lfx 11y ago

Neat site! I was looking for something similar for a while. Feature Request: Episode date in search listing.

yk 11y ago

I really like the idea, but (to give some feedback) I don't think one can call anything the imdb for x without a best/worst 250. And ratings and explore by category and I want a pony... (Also the site is somewhat unfriendly for NoScript users, apparently one has to allow apple.com to get search working, which is counter intuitive. But of course noscript users should expect some trouble.)

therealdrag0 11y ago
Agreed. For me IMDB is all about ratings, and one of the best (only?) advanced media searches out there (http://www.imdb.com/search/title http://www.imdb.com/search/title).
r0m4n0 11y ago
Also piggy backing this, I agree. I clicked and searched for my favorite podcast thinking I would find a rating!
brownbat 11y ago
Agreed, though I want this more than I want the imdb for podcasts. Ratings and recommendations would be nifty I guess, but I've wanted a one stop shop for podcasts with a clean and consistent layout for a long time. I mean, one that doesn't make me install a bloated program that I don't want to use. This one's checked off, my other podcast wishlist items: 1) autotag my podcasts by parsing their RSS feeds 2) a head unit in my car that would connect to my wifi from my driveway or garage, then automatically download new episodes of subscribed podcasts every night or morning. Ideally I could manage my subscriptions on my PC through a website or through a settings page the car offers to my network, so I'm not forced to use the limited controls of a car to manage podcast subscriptions. (Maybe everyone else solves this problem by just keeping an iPhone with unlimited data in their cup holder.)
- uean 11y ago
  Exactly - I run a wifi range extender in the car that connects to my home wireless when it is parked out front of the house, and an iPod that connects to that wireless to do syncing. It's magically dorky, and has spawned friends into getting repeaters for mesh networking and playing Lan games on mobile devices while roadtripping, which is equally amazing. Staying on topic - this site is great so far and looking forward to seeing more features added. Really agree that a top X by category and 'similar to' rating system would make this pretty killer.

xasos 11y ago

This is awesome! I'm sure if you open up the API, many people would want if for their respective players (this would be awesome with Overcast.fm, for example)

bornwithabeard 11y ago

wow, this is terrific. It's something often discussed with friends that someone needs to do this - but we never offered ourselves up due the absolutely massive undertaking it would be. Super excited that someone's done this though. I hope the site keeps growing - It'd be great to have some of the suggestions already made to be part of it. the "top 250" would be interesting and for me personally, I'm not sure how much faith I'd put into it: I'm quite finicky when it comes to podcasts. I have a couple of podcasts that I listen to religiously, but I also have some podcasts that I subscribe to, but would only download depending on the guest for that episode, and then there's some podcasts that are right up my alley, interest wise, but something as simple as one of the person's voices/accent is so off-putting that I disregard it completely. With movies, it's easy to say "that movie isn't for me, but I can understand the praise it's receiving", but I don't think podcasts really work that way

rpwilcox 11y ago

Neat idea! Missing some pretty obvious data: probably should make sure Adam Curry and Dave Winer's stuff is complete, for example. (Although I guess you're an old foggy podcast listener when you search for the "Daily Source Code"...)

1123581321 11y ago

I'm noticing many omissions and errors from my friends' podcasts (which aren't all that popular, so understandable.) Rather than list the issues here, I'm wondering what's the best way they can improve the data for their shows and personas overall.

hijp 11y ago
Send me an email at podcastcatalog@gmail.com, I'd love to talk to you (or them).

cubano 11y ago

I've been enjoying podcasts for many years now, so this seems like a wonderful resource...great work guys/gals! If anyone is looking looking for something different and educational and entertaining, check out Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. It's amazing, and I've been a fan of his for a decade now and he keeps getting better and better.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

throwathrowaway 11y ago

I hope this site catches on! Is there any tool to search for podcast by length or format? I really like the Writing Excuses podcast (from suggestions on HN) and would like to find others in the same format on different topics. Short podcasts with well thought out analysis and answers.

giancarlostoro 11y ago

Weird, website seems to be blocked by my schools network apparently having to do with Usenet. No idea what that's about.

Jordrok 11y ago

Neat idea, I'd love to see this take off. I imagine it's going to take a lot of work to reach Imdb-level comprehensiveness though. Until a certain threshold is met, it's going to be hard to beat Googling (person's name) + podcast. Here's my anecdata: Searched for John Oliver and got no relevant results. Searched for Andy Zaltzman and got his cricket podcast. Searched for The Bugle and found it, but no links to the aforementioned hosts. Searched for John Bain and got his picture + a mention from a podcast I didn't recognize. Searched for TotalBiscuit and found The Co-optional Podcast and other CynicalBrit stuff. Hmm...I wonder how many bits of my own identifying info I just leaked there... Oh well.

caoilte 11y ago

Isn't this just a thin skin on iTunes?

cjensen 11y ago

Overcast[1] has an index. At least for the incredibly small subset of podcasts I looked at, Overcast is a more complete index. Podcat does not seem to get the names of podcasters correct. For example, searching for Marco Arment links to only some episodes of 'Build and Analyze', which is Arment's old podcast where he appeared in 100% of episodes. Podcat appears to index names if the given name is name-checked in a podcast's episode text. That's going to be a spam target. Potentially Podcat could be a great thing. Interesting work. [1] https://overcast.fm https://overcast.fm

zeemonkee3 11y ago

This looks cool, very fast search and I like the idea of referencing names (presumably through name-checking of episode summaries?). I worked on a side project a few months ago[1] as I just wanted my own personal webplayer. It's OK, but has the limitation that it only works with podcasts that have discoverable RSS feeds; many are behind the walled gardens of iTunes or Soundcloud or other proprietary platforms unfortunately. As it's really to scratch an itch for my own needs it doesn't do ratings/comments/recommendations which would be on my todo list for a more complete app. Are you planning on adding these features in the near future? [1] https://podbaby.me https://podbaby.me

sandebert 11y ago

It's broken on mobile, right? I tried searching for Patio11, because... well, Patio11. :-) Didn't see a submit button so I pressed enter. Nothing happened. Tried a couple of times, including accessing the page by "Request desktop site". Same result. Tested with Chrome 49.

tgb 11y ago
Same on desktop, but the problem is that nothing comes up for patio11 and when nothing comes up it doesn't display any results at all. Try a different search and it should display the results below the search bar.
patio11 11y ago
Try "Kalzumeus" or "Patrick McKenzie", although I will definitely take a whack at my metadata in response to this comment. (I use "Perhaps better known as patio11" as a self-deprecating joke and forget that it is actually literally true when making consequential decisions like e.g. metadata, registering domain names, etc. Someone got patio11.com and transferred it to me, shocked that I hadn't thought of that. I'm shocked, too.)

clorisu 11y ago

I'd -really- like this idea, if only it allowed saving podcasts, rating them, and reviewing them.

addedlovely 11y ago

Nice one! I made myself a slightly lighter, curated version, a few months back...bit unfinished, but one massive json object containing hours of goodness. http://longwave.addedlovely.com http://longwave.addedlovely.com

ericrius3 11y ago

I love this so much.... finding certain podcasts have changed my life so much, and I've been wanting something like this for a long time. Thank you! I really look forward to watching this app evolve!

weisser 11y ago

Fantastic! Where's the ability to track what you've listened to so far?

badthingfactory 11y ago

This is well executed. I attempted to build something very similar about a year ago. I had a decent prototype, but found it rather difficult to aggregate a complete listing of podcasts scattered around the internet. The world needs a centralized podcast app other than iTunes. Keep up the good work!

mrmondo 11y ago

Fantastic! I've wanted this for ages! It'd be cool if you could work to integrate with overcast somehow?

Falcon9 11y ago

I want this website so badly! Please keep it up and continuing to find a way to make it more complete. Right now I can find appearances by Daniel Negreanu by searching in iTunes, but not through Podcat. Also it would be awesome if there were a way to include information beyond the RSS feed of a podcast - for example Arcade Outsiders only includes information from the most recent 20 or so episodes, though there have been 89+ episodes overall which are all still available with information on the Arcade Outsiders website. Another possible feature: strip out the repetitive portions of episode descriptions on the results page when the displayed text is always the same for all the results on the page.

chao123 11y ago

The criteria for a good podcast in my perspective should support us to Create custom stations of your favorite radio and podcast that update automatically when new episodes become available. At the same time, you can Use the On-The-Go playlist to play just the episodes you want. I’m addicted to CastBox APP downloaded from Google Play cuz I really enjoy the bus time with audio books, breaking news during breakfast and free music for my bedtime. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.podcasts https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.po...

JayeshSidhwani 11y ago

Great product. Wish it had better discovery. A simple filter-enabled page of all podcasts will make it more usable!

VLM 11y ago

Needs a synonym list in the search. For example, there's at least two Mike/Micheal Duncan's, one does history podcasting (history of rome, revolutions, both awesome) and the other I'm not familiar with but apparently does something biblical. The history podcaster does not show up as a person but the preacher does. The history podcasts show up for mike duncan but not micheal duncan. The history podcaster is "kinda famous ish" in the the field of history podcasting and keeps getting interviewed on other shows, pretty sure he was on "life of caesar" and a couple others, but those either don't show up or haven't been crawled by the search.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

babubabu 11y ago

Recently changed my iPhone to android, CastBox app is the best podcast for android I have ever use! Numerous free music, radios and audio books! I watch the podcast on youtube when i back home, but the way to office and bedtime podcast, i prefer CastBox APP more. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.podcasts https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.po...

babubabu 11y ago

BTW, CastBox app is the best podcast for android I have ever use! free music, radios and audio books! the way to office and bedtime podcast, i prefer castbox app much for streaming and offline listen. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.podcasts https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.po...

tmschl 11y ago

Yes!! So useful. Thanks for doing this, excited for it to grow and become even more functional

darknessislight 11y ago

How can it be Imdb for podcasts without ability to rate or comment podcasts or even episodes?

babubabu 11y ago

Just wanna find a Podcasts app for my kids hope it’s an amazing way to discover, subscribe to, and play your favorite podcast. My must-have point is numerous free audio and video radio podcast in the Featured tab, or browse Top Charts to see what's hot right now. So that I can add favorite radio and podcast to personal stations that stay up to date when new episodes become available. I wanna try CastBox APP on Google Play, cuz there are a lot of audios and musics for family time and kids. any suggestion? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.podcasts https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.po...

babubabu 11y ago

I myself is a busy guy with frequent business trips, always need a podcast app on my Android phone to save favorite episodes such as particular music, audios that I prefer while I am on my way. CastBox APP is the one I am addicted to recently, highly recommended download it from google play. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.podcasts https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.po...