Welcome to the first official News & Development Update on the Skip Clips blog. This post continues the series of progress reports we previously shared on Indie Hackers.
The last couple of months have been productive. We have made steady improvements across the platform, covering backend systems, new features, and front-end refinements.
Below is a detailed overview of what has been completed and what is currently in progress.
1. Redesigned Homepage and UI Improvements
The homepage has been redesigned to improve clarity and usability. Instead of long rows of shows, the page now highlights recent and featured episodes more prominently. A clearer search bar has also been added to help users find content more quickly. In addition, several smaller UI bugs have been identified and fixed during this process.
2. Hover Descriptions
Episode thumbnails on the Home Page, New Page and Trending Page now support hover descriptions. When you move your cursor over a thumbnail, a short summary of the episode appears. This allows visitors to get a quick sense of the content without needing to open the full episode page.
3. Show Performance & Analytics
We have introduced performance analytics on individual show pages, expanding upon episode analytics which was introduced earlier in the year. At the moment it is powered by the YouTube API however we are exploring additional platforms. These metrics provide a clearer picture of how each show is performing and include:
- Core audience size
- Rolling 30-day views gain
- Hit rate
- Engagement rate
- Comment-to-like ratio
- Daily growth delta
- Lifetime cumulative views, likes, and comments (presented with graphs)
4. Official Blog Launch
The Skip Clips blog is now live. You can read all current and future posts at https://skipclips.com/blog. This space will be used for product updates, longer-form articles about podcasts, and related topics.
5. Improved Processing Pipeline
As the volume of content continues to grow, we have strengthened the episode processing pipeline. The system now provides better visibility and control at each stage, from downloading and transcription through to summarisation for our admin team. These changes improve reliability and should help the platform scale more smoothly over time as the site grows.
6. Category Tagging (Work in Progress)
One of the ongoing challenges we face is the large number of tags across the archive. We currently have more than 50,000 unique episode tags, many of which are similar or overlapping. We have started building a system to organise these tags into clearer categories. At present the process still involves a significant amount of manual work.
Once complete, this feature will make it easier to browse and filter episodes by topic rather than only by show.It will also provide the foundation for future capabilities such as allowing users to follow specific categories or individual tags (which you can do now with the current search).
7. New Shows Added
Several new shows have been added to the catalogue in recent months. These include:Plans for the Coming Months
Looking ahead, our main priorities for the next couple of months are:
- Moving Category Tagging into full production
- Expanding the number of complete guest profiles
- Publishing additional blog posts
- Preparing the groundwork for user profiles
- Continuing to add new shows based on your suggestions
Until next time,
James