---
title: "Botcasting – automated text-to-voice services"
date: 2005-11-29
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2005"
    url: "/tag/2005.md"
---

# Botcasting – automated text-to-voice services

Ted Gilchrist [pointed to](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508061259/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_mashups.php#comment-1871) a new text-to-voice service he’s running called [Botcast Network](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508061259/http://www.botcastnetwork.com/). He’s created a special podcast feed for my blog, so you can regularly listen to my blog posts being spoken in a robot voice.

I actually already had a text-to-voice service running on Read/WriteWeb, [Talkr](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508061259/http://www.talkr.com/), so I thought I’d compare the two services. [Here is Talkr](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508061259/http://www.talkr.com/audio/r/e/a/d/493405.mp3) reading my recent post about my MT upgrade and [here is Botcast Network](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508061259/http://homepage.mac.com/juliabuck/.Music/creative_commons_output/readwrite.rade_cdphp.mp3) reading the same post. In terms of voice output, Botcast uses a male robot and the quality is a little faltering. Talkr uses a female robot voice and runs smoother (it’s also quite alluring…but I digress).

To subscribe to a robot podcast of Read/WriteWeb in Talkr, use [this feed](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508061259/http://www.talkr.com/app/my_feeds.app?action=subscribe&feed_id=1289) (registration required I think). In Botcast Network, use [this feed](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508061259/http://feeds.feedburner.com/RebotcastReadsReadWriteweb). Either way, it’s great to see innovation happening in text-to-voice, because it makes the Web accessible to blind people and those with vision problems.

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/botcasting_auto.php))*