Strengthening Google Local also helps in the longer term as is is a source for more commercial destination (ad placements) for Google maps in anticipation of more prevasive mobile internet.

I doubt that they’d be interested in Arbitron, because they provide an alternate ad measurement system that’s tied directly to performance instead of diaries etc. It seems to me that advertisers like performance based mechainism - at least if the move on-line is an indication. An alternative may be more likely.

In terms of Adwords on podcasts the issue is that until DRM is solved the market for podcasts to be deeply integrated into station programming is pretty small.

OK, please let me continue the discussion - that’s why we’re here, and in some ways what I wanted to promote through the headline of this post. It wasn’t so long ago that only a few moguls controlled rare things such as public spectrum and thus news and cultural agenda, so the very fact that citizens are having a discussion on personal media says a hell of a lot about what’s at stake.

Let’s address the broader issue of the industry, and then get to my comments on TPN (Cam’s reply here).

First of all, I’m as red-blooded a capitalist as the next man. When it comes to advertising, I’ve already said that I can’t get enough of it - when it’s something I’m interested in. And if I don’t want it, there’s always the subscription model.

Because podcasting is evolving so quickly, it’s important to devote some critical thought to the role of advertising. Advertising, when untargeted, is the fastest way lose the interest of the listener. We already have an established behaviour pattern in terrestrial commercial radio. Hear an ad? Skip to another station. It’s so ingrained, that it’s highly likely this behaviour will be transferred to podcasting, especially when there are so many different shows to listen to, and time is limited.

Because podcasting is so exquisitely personalised, it makes it so much harder to fit broader advertising objectives into tiny little slots.

Let’s have a closer look at the TPN/Motorola creative. What was objective here? There is no call to action, I’ve never heard a specific handset model mentioned in an ad, nor any features that might make it relevant to podcast listeners.

And what about metrics? How useful has this campaign actually been for Motorola?

Why didn’t they simply ditch money spent on the creatives, and get Cam to offer a cash-back deal (hopefully to international markets) on a handset? And how about a bit of seeding too (i.e. some give aways). This isn’t rocket science after all.

Another example of how it’s taking off is The Podcast Network (www.thepodcastnetwork.com), launched yesterday. Also, Adam Curry reporting yesterday that his ipodder site now has over 3,000 podcasts listed.