As you may, or may not be aware, I am not linking to Associated Press stories.

This applies to both stories at the Associated Press, as well as stories at other venues that carry an AP byline.

It’s not absolute: If I cannot find another source anywhere, and the story is IMNSHO important, I will link, with a preference for not linking directly to the AP servers.

I have spiked comment based on the the fact that I could not find another source on a number of occasions, but generally, Google News has managed to bail me out.

Well, Google and the Associated Press are coming up on the end of their current licensing agreement, and as a result, Google has not included any links to the AP site since December 23:

Through much of last year, the Associated Press threw public barbs and veiled threats at Google, while in private it was renegotiating its licensing agreement with Google News. That agreement is believed to be up for renewal at the end of this month, yet no new AP stories have appeared directly on Google News since December 23, 2009. (AP stories licensed by other news sites such as ABC News or the New York Times do continue to appear, however). So what’s going on here? Is that the end of AP stories on Google News?

I’ve been doing some sniffing around, and it is not the AP that is withholding its content. This conclusion is also supported by the fact that older AP content from before Christmas continues to be available on Google News. If the AP were no longer licensing its articles to Google, those older articles likely would also no longer be available. (The AP has talked about withholding news from certain licensees for a set period of time, but those were measured in minutes and hours, not weeks, and it would operate on a rolling basis. The AP stories on Google News just stop on December 23).

The pucker factor at the Associated Press offices right now must be extreme.