Elias Roman, writing for the Official Android Blog:

To that end, today we’re launching a portal for podcasters to start uploading their shows to Google Play Music before we open up the service to listeners. Along with direct searches and browsing for podcasts, the service will connect new listeners with podcasts based on what they’re doing, how they’re feeling, or what they’re interested in. Similar to our contextual playlists for music, this will give podcast fans and new listeners a way of finding and listening to content that’s unique to Google Play Music.

It’s not all good news, though. G. Keenan Schneider did some digging into the terms of service and found something abhorrent:

As much as I’d like another avenue to expand Limitless Adventure and potentially introduce it to a larger audience, I do take issue with how they’re planning on injecting ads. […]

No injecting ads before or during a show, but there can be ads after the show is over. Google obviously sees this as serving an ad that is separate from the show itself–and the TOS says that they won’t sell or target ads against episode content or individual podcast creators–but there are plenty of shows (mine included) that end with a cold close. It’s reasonable to assume that in that case, an ad that follows directly after would be misconstrued as being connected (even tangentially) with the show.

And here’s the kicker, Google isn’t even offering to share advertising revenue with podcasters. That’s just slimy. Aside from greed, I can’t see any reason why Google wouldn’t treat these post-rolls ads the same way they do ads on YouTube. If Google’s going to have the audacity to serve advertising against podcasts and create potential confusion for listeners inadvertently associating those ads with their shows, they should at the very least be sharing revenue with producers.