Yahoo Signs Deal with AP, Google Still Negotiating

The Google - Associated Press 'saga' drags on, but the story got an interesting twist as Yahoo announced a new agreement with the news wire agency which will allow it to host AP content on its sites under new terms for an unspecified period of time. The new deal was rumored to be coming for a couple of weeks. The actual terms are a bit vague, but it's clear that their stories won't sell under a tiered pricing system as the AP wanted at some point.

The financial details of the deal haven't been disclosed. Yahoo will continue to host AP stories, as it has since 1998, on its various online proprieties. Yahoo may also be stepping up the protection of the content it hosts though "Yahoo pledged to enforce 'the strictest standards' to protect the AP’s content" doesn't really say that much. Both companies are staying quiet on the details but, for the most part, it doesn't look like much has changed from the previous deal.

Things aren't going so great with Google though, as the two sides are in negotiations to renew a similar agreement to host AP stories on Google News. The previous agreement was set to expire in 'late January' and Google has pulled all AP stories since December in anticipation of the deadline.

The company may have been looking to ensure that, if a new deal isn't signed, AP stories aren't going to be available on Google News after the previous one expired. More likely, it was a tactical move to gain the upper hand in the negotiations. From the looks of it, it's working as, a month after Google News stopped hosting AP content, there doesn't seem to be that many complaints from the users about it. This may have something to do with the fact that, even though it isn't hosting them, there are still AP stories on Google News from the various partners AP has.

Search Engine Land thinks that the existing agreement may have gotten an extension after Google stated that it still had the right to host AP content. "We have a licensing agreement with the Associated Press that permits us to host its content on Google properties such as Google News. Right now we are not adding new hosted content from the AP. The licensing agreement is the subject of ongoing discussion so we won’t be commenting further at this time," Google said. It's clear, though, that a new agreement hasn't been signed and that no AP news stories are coming to Google News until that happens.