Google Podcasts, What's the Deal?

There's been much talk lately about the recently launched Google Podcasts app; a native take on subscribing and listening to shows. As I understand it, most folks have been using third party app Pocket Casts up to this point and loving it - so why is the Google Podcast app worth mentioning?

This piece from James Cridland does a good job of spelling out the reasons why the app is significant. The broad points are:

• The app is just a frontend for search results that are already on every phone. It's just a shortcut to something you've always had.
• The app doesn't automatically download anything ahead of time, it plays on demand. This is impactful because it might alter podcast stats; if mearly downloading an episode was coming back as a play.
• It doesn't use the iTunes API for shows. This levels the playing field a bit as the Android user base is huge and may make discovery easier.

I can't be sure one way or the other how this will impact the actual ecosystem of podcasting but I'm glad to see the Googs spending some time on the format.