Convert any blog feed into audio using BlogBard
BlogBard is a cool new startup, using which, you can convert any blog feed into audio.
Yes, thats right. Provide the url to the RSS / ATOM feed and Blogbard will convert the blog posts into audio. I tried out the service and the text-to-speech conversion if pretty darn accurate. Even the pronunciation of several proper nouns is right on the mark. For instance in this post, the service was correctly able to pronounce Rajnish, BollywoodHungama, Niraj etc.
As per Manoj, the founder,
“The problem we are trying to address is creating a new channel for consuming content that is traditionally consumed by reading, which is difficult when we are multitasking or simply not in front of our PCs. Our typical PC users include people who like to listen to online radio in the background”
They have also integrated Google Reader and Bloglines into their service. So, logon to any of these feed readers through Blogbard’s website and you can listen to audio of your feed subscriptions. They also provide support for iPhone - iTouch. Support for Treo and Blackberry are in the works. They also provide the ability to download the entire feed as audio via iTunes.
Blogbard has got me really excited. Its a great, innovative startup with some cool technology. It’d be very handy to listen to audio of some of my favorite blogs while traveling or during that nasty traffic jam.
Bloggers-websites can also embed widgets on their site. Below is the widget for StartupDunia posts.
Go ahead, give it a shot - its simply amazing.
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:21 am
It is a very cool integration of technologies i have seen recently. The most beneficial part is that it can stream the audio version of a blog on demand instantaneously as you enter the url of the blog. I have been using it for few days while commuting and the experience has been nice.
One thing i would like is that if an user can control what voice he wants to hear..say a female voice or a male voice, it would be a bonus.
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:01 am
Wow that will be great
February 24th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
@sunil - I’m willing to make peace with the possibility that they offer only male voice
February 26th, 2008 at 10:41 am
1. wont work
2. there are much better TTS engines out there
3. people cannot listen to TEXT / word audio feeds AND browse at the same time. We cannot multi-task in this manner. Listeinign to music while you surf is *much* different than this.
4. I hate the “more…” cut off
5. people will prefer podcasts.
Dont waste your time on this - its just a nifty story
February 26th, 2008 at 10:43 am
I have been using Odiogo (http://www.odiogo.com/) on my blog which offers similar service for free and I have been happy so far using it. I am not sure if BlogBard offers something which is different.
Although I won’t mind more such players providing similar services as I think there is enough room for a few good players.
But I certainly don’t think that BlogBard is innovative by any means. They seem to just copy a good idea already present on internet.
March 8th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
They should concentrate on the mobile market. It doesn’t make sense to hear the ‘river-of-news’ on GoogReader, but it’s great if you have a tag on GReader of the feeds that you REALLY need to read every day.
May 27th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
I never thought this was possible.
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:37 am
really I enjoyed adding it to my two blogs which is needed for most visitors
please keep us informed