PodZinger is a search engine that lets you search for words and phrases within podcasts and videocasts. Yes, within the actual audio. And now there's a plug-in available that adds PodZinger to the Mozilla search toolbar.

I installed the plug-in, and a-searchin' I went. PodZinger uses some speech-to-text magic that is far from perfect, but cool nonetheless. Most of the time, the "amber" it supposedly found was actually something like "and in." However, it did find two actual instances of "Georgia Podcast Network." (Obviously I'm going to search for my name and the web site I run... what else would I search for?)

Even though speech-to-text technology is still in the very early stages, PodZinger is definitely a service to keep an eye on. This is the direction in which the web will be heading in coming years.

(Thanks, Jasmine!)