Searching Audio Files

Podzinger, www.podzinger.com

Podzinger is based on speech-recognition technology that BBN developed for U.S. intelligence to monitor foreign televisionand radio broadcasts.  It uses this technology to create a text index of the audio data in any MP3 or WAV file.  The searchable text of a podcast generally is available on the site within eight hours of the podcast's publication, an FAQ says.

Podscope, www.podscope.com

A company whose product allows full-text searching of TV and radio programs.  Podscope indexes the audio of podcasts as well as of video blogs and personal videos.  Podscope uses limited voice-recognition technology but primarily scans not for full words, but for phonemes - the sounds of individual syllables.  Because of this, its search results do not show actual words from the podcast, as does Podzinger.  Instead, results show only the title and the source of the podcast and display buttons allowing you to play the podcast from its beginning, go to its source site, or get its RSS feed. 

Blinkx, www.blinkx.com

Indexes not only podcasts, but also TV news programs from BBC, ITN, Fox News, Reuters, Bloomberg and MSNBC News; academic lectures; independent short films; and amateur videos.