Do you remember back in January when Google purchased the radio ad company "dMarc Broadcasting"? Well if you don't... don't sweat it because not many will.

I, for one, do remember reading about the acquisition; however, I never got around to Blogging it simply because there was so much other Blog-worthy stuff to post instead. If you remember, at that time I was only posting once a week and I guess this subject had been trumped a couple of times by more important posts. Eventually, I must have just forgotten about it... until now that is.

So what has made me think about Google and dMarc Broadcasting after all this time? Well, this past Wednesday, Google inked a deal with XM Satellite Radio... a deal that will eventually allow the search giant's AdWords advertisers to promote their products and services through XM spots.

With the dMarc platform in its possession, Google has made what otherwise would be complicated radio advertising procedures, such as sales, scheduling and tracking, automated and simplified. Currently, the platform is available only to dMarc advertisers, and not AdWords clients, but Google estimates that dMarc will be integrated into the AdWords software by the fourth quarter of this year.

This deal is the latest of what seems like a series of moves to expand the AdWords program beyond a strictly online medium... and such a partnership with XM radio is definitely a major step in that direction.

Just take a moment and think about what Google is doing. With the use of their dMarc Broadcasting system and this partnership with XM radio, Google has opened the doors for its advertisers to more than 7 million radio subscribers throughout the U.S. alone. That, combined with the already powerful distribution of their current Adwords program, offers several different marketing avenues for small, medium, and large companies to explore. Not a bad move if you ask me.