In addition to today's Internet Marketing Monitor coverage, we felt these stories were worth pulling out of the multitude of news items for April 16, 2007:

  Google, Clear Channel Ink Long-Term Deal  [The Washington Post]

Google Audio Ads have been flopping around for a while.  Word on the street is that they're not too bad… there's just not any good inventory for sale through the system.  Well that's no longer the case.  Google and Clear Channel have teamed up to extend Google Audio Ads to Clear Channel's massive radio station network.  There are a few catches, though:  Google only gets 5% of Clear Channel's premium ad inventory and they can only sell to new customers.  Clear Channel apparently doesn't want Google messing around with it's established customers.  Looks like Google got a bit a smack-down with this deal because it doesn't have that familiar Google-dominated reek to it.  In a related note, AdSense for Audio is now compatible with more radio stations.  More information on Clear Channel deal:  Google press release | Google Blog announcement

  Sitemaps Ping URLs at Google, Yahoo, & Ask.com  [Search Engine Roundtable]

Are you totally pumped and excited about last week's news that Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Ask.com had joined together in supporting sitemaps auto-discovery?!  Ok.  Maybe it's not quite that exciting.  At any rate, it does make sitemap-submission a much easier task.  But once the search engines have been to your sitemap once, how do you let them know that you've made any changes?  Search Engine Roundtable has provided a handy-dandy list of the URLs to ping to notify Google, Yahoo, and Ask.com of new sitemaps.  Microsoft doesn't have one because their support for the sitemaps protocol has been vaporous so far.  If you're a WordPress user, this nifty plugin will not only auto-generate sitemaps for you, but it will also ping Google automatically.  (One note:  the stable version is Google-specific (I believe).  The beta version is said to have support for other search engines but I haven't tried it due to some issues in earlier betas.  If you try the newest beta, let me know how it works out for you!)

  IBM improves free enterprise search tool  [C|Net News.com]

Remember IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition?  It's the free enterprise search solution created in a joint venture between Big Blue and Sunnyvale.  The tool is getting a refresh that includes, among other things, several new localized versions and interface tweaks.  In addition, improvements have been made to the way search channels and custom content are added.  Metadata can now be used to "tag" content to assist users doing advanced searches.

  DodgeBall founder quits Google  [GigaOM]

Many are wondering if this is a "cat out of the bag" type of situation for Google.  First the dMarc founders quit.  Now the folks behind DodgeBall are leaving.  I wonder if Chat Hurley still likes his job?  So apparently it's real nice to get bought by Google, money-wise.  But I guess life inside the Googleplex isn't as great… for acquired talent, that is.  I can't say I'm surprised.  I'd be willing to bet that Google only brings the people behind the technology it acquires on as employees for PR reasons.  I doubt they really want/need the talent.  So why don't they just put that on the table during acquisition talks?  "We want your product… but you can stay at home and play World of Warcraft"…

  Local Search Marketing  [Hitwise]

If you've ever asked yourself were folks were going for local search queries, some new data released by Hitwise might answer a few of your questions.  Online Yellow Pages site visits are down while local search at the big engines is up.  Also of interest is the fact that the yellow pages are getting the least amount of search engine traffic from the group.  It would appear that search engines are sending folks to their own local search offerings more often (color me not shocked).  And according to this information, Google Maps has taken a sharp upward climb since the beginning of the year and left Yahoo Local - which it had previously been neck-and-neck with - in the dust.

  The Perfect Solution to Paid Link Disclosure  [SoloSEO]

Following the shenanigans that became the fallout of Matt Cutt's chat about Google's increasing attention to paid links, conversations about exactly how to deal with it have sprung up.  I suggested ignoring them.  But I know that's not likely to happen.  Michael Jensen at SoloSEO has posted what's probably a better idea:  a way to graphically indicated paid links by using some simple CSS.  In the solution he provides, paid links display a little dollar sign ($) next to the linked text when hovered on.  There are examples in the post as well as instructions for implementing such a disclosure policy on your site.  But, as he points out, it probably won't make Google happy because it isn't as machine-obvious as Googlebot would like.  It's a nice way to make paid links more obvious to your readers, though.  And despite what Google says, your readers are still what's important.

Somebody had a case of "the Mondays" today.  Was it just me?  Probably not since a lot of folks are still recovering from SES NY.  Here's to a restful night for all and a more energized Tuesday!