WP Plugin: Listen Button: Create instant podcasts from your blog text with this plugin from Odiogo.com. It creates a “Listen” button on your blog that people can click to listen to the text of a post. The content is read by a machine and the voice stream is linked in a flash player format on your blog. The mp3 resides on the Odiogo server and can also be downloaded. Weblog Tools Collection can now be downloaded in a podcast format with the help of this service. You can do the same for your blog by signing up for their podcast service.
I am not sure this format makes sense for the staccato delivery of this blog but it might be a cool feature for blogs with longer articles and lesser linked content. At the very least, it is a novelty for any blogger that always wanted to hear themselves type or something like that. The service is free as of now.
if you look at the podcast page you link to, it reports file sizes in the 100’s of megabytes. I hope this is an error because that is rather excessive.
Aaron, I did notice that and I am glad that they are serving the file and not the users’ server. I agree that that is quite excessive.
Hehe, funky service! 😀 I’m actually impressed by the narration of ‘Listen Button’ seeing as it’s automated, it’s more natural than I had expected! I don’t see how it could be a long term service though (well, free), due to the file-size for a start, and presumably once it becomes popular the servers will have to handle a rather heavy load! Nevertheless, thanks for the info! I might actually try it out at some point 🙂
Hey Mark, off topic, but what happened to your site style? I’m getting no style sheet. (Debian “Etch” with Opera 9.21) Style sheets on other sites work.
Jonathan, try a hard refresh on your browser. It works fine here. Anyone else have this problem?
This is quite a cool service, but will people using screen readers be able to click play on the flash movie? You could argue they don’t need it, but the screen reader would be able to skip through to the entry this way.
The voice is good, more natural than I expected.
^ I’m on Opera 9.21 on WinXP and all stylesheets are fine.
Never mind, Mark. It was a setting in my local install. doh! :o)
This is really neat. I don’t think I need it on my site… but I want it, for funzies. 🙂
It’s definitely a nice plugin, and I agree that the narration sounds very natural, although it did futz on certain words (how do you mess up “haha”?). I do wish there was more customization as to where you can put the listen button. We’ll have to get on Odiogo about making template tags you can stick in your theme to customize where the button and player container go.
I’ve installed odiogo on http://www.sciencebase.com, but wondering how to control the placement of the button so that it’s wrapped into the text not stuck up above…
I’m sure there’s a simple hack to the plugin php and then a call from single-page theme file or something…any help greatly, as always
db
PS Listen to its pronunciation of Sciencebase, it’s odd but amusing…