Incredible, I know, but for the third time in two days, MySpace does something newsworthy. Today, they topped them all, and they just might have revolutionized music onlinelittle, if any, exaggeration. How do you listen to music online now? A dollar a download? A limited number of song plays a month? A stream of music with a limited number of "skip this track"s? And your music videosYouTube, maybe even bootlegs, right?

The last time we gave away a free book, you loved it! So, we're doing it again! This time, thanks to Sybex, we're giving away three copies of Tim Ash's excellent new book Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing & Tuning for Conversions . After pouring over every word, Ash's book served as a reminder of why it's important to understand your target audience, anticipate their needs, and fine-tune your landing page until you get it right.

How much do you think it would cost to get some one-on-one training with Om Malik ? Biz Stone ? Peter Shankman ? Susan Bratton ? I can tell you that, for two days of consulting, my normal rate would be at least five figures-so I suspect the aforementioned gurus would be even more. Now, how would you like to get access to all of the above, and Charlene Li , Roxanne Darling , and Dave Taylor for just $2500? What if I threw in a $500 discount?

Back in April we reported on Yahoo's planned AMP advertising platform . Yahoo has now officially launched the platform, but has apparently decided that "AMP" didn't quite make the cut as a cool brand-so it's changing the name to "APT" instead. )yeah, I don't know either( The official press release spares no enthusiasm: As a Web-based solution with the potential to allow unprecedented ease of cross-selling across the largest open network of publishers,

2012 Games The Games of Twenty Twelve London 2012 Summer Games Any of the above phrases could land me a $40,000 fine, if Marketing Pilgrim were based in the United Kingdom. You see, the Olympics Act of 2006 specifically bans the use of terms such as: '2012, games, gold, silver and bronze in combination except by those who are official sponsors of the Olympic Games and allows the Games' authorities to control advertising around the venues used in the Games.

By allowing its engineers to spend 20% of their work week on projects that interest them, Google is able to tap into the many talents of its employees. The latest "20% project" to get released into the wild is Google Moderator . While Matt Cutts didn't work on the project, he does offer a simple explanation of what Google Moderator does: What does Google Moderator do? When we have tech talks or company-wide meetings,

Social networks are a great way to raise money for good causes. Just look at Nie Recovery - the family's plight made national news because bloggers banded to raise money for a family they had never met. MySpace and PayPal are using a new widget to help nonprofits gather donations on social networks. To participate, go to www.myspace.com/paypal and create a customized widget that can be virally copied and replicated on anyone's MySpace page.

Google's getting on in years. It's gotten to the point where they're not quite sure of their own birthday. Once upon a time, it was September 7 , but it's since migrated to September 27. )That's okay. It happens to the best of us.( To celebrate the bit 1-0 this week, Google has launched a site dedicated to its tenth birthday . The site features Google trivia and milestones,

I know I'm probably the only one, but since I've gotten used to WP 2.5+, I now find myself racing to fill in the title before it generates the post slug. Silly, I know, but DARN September for having such a long name! I thought you could use some good news about the American economy, so here it is: VCs are still bullish on Silicon Valley . Of course they are. It's a great time to buy. TechCrunch asks Is Yahoo Trying To Sell Yahoo Answers? Maybe I'm in a wicked mood,

Yet another way for a social network to monetize itselfMySpace is launching a do-it-yourself ad targeting program. Currently in beta at advertise.myspace.com , the program is designed to help MySpace advertisers promote their business or their music. The ad program runs on a CPC basis with a minimum $0.25 bid )$25 campaign minimum(. The program enables advertisers to target MySpace users based on gender, age, region, city/state, and interests. Naturally,

I'm back from Durango, CO. Such a cool little town-I felt like I caught a glimpse of the wild west days. Anyway, while I work to catch-up on my inbox, I'll leave you to digest today's Picks. Is there really a third Google co-founder and was he dissed by Page and Brin? Google Webmaster Central blog is once again answering your questions . In case you care, Google In Quotes launches to make it easier for you to compare McCain and Obama on different topical issues.

How about a little game of Jeopardy ? Here's your "Mergers & Acquisitions" question for $500. "He owns shares in Time Warner, was just named to the Yahoo board )along with two cohorts( and appears to be behind a new talks with Time Warner's AOL unit." If you answered "Who is Carl Icahn?" then you and I are on the same page. The eternal disrupter, Carl Icahn's rear end is barely warming his seat on Yahoo's board,

Ars Technica has details of a new study from the excellent )yes, I'm biased( Psychology Department of North Carolina State University. Basically, they created a series of "pop-up" windows designed to look like system messages, but could easily have been viruses. The results? Of the 42 students, 26 clicked the OK button for the "real" dialog. But 25 clicked the same button for two of the fakes, and 23 hit OK on the third )the one with the status bar showing(.

The G1 Gphone will probably dominate the news today, but Google has made a few other interesting announcements )plus one from Hulu(. Google Maps continues to roll out other mobile improvements, today adding New York City public transit directions for mobile . Wondering about your dynamic URLs? The Official Google Webmaster Central Blog post on the subject may or may not help' Finally,

The much-discussed, oft-denied-until-confirmed Google Android "Gphone" is . . . here. Almost. Today's announcement doesn't come from the pages of the Wall Street Journal )okay, well, I did see it there, too(, but from Google itself . The announcement? T-Mobile has the first Google Android "Gphone," the G1 . If you pre-order the phone for $179.99 )plus taxes and fees; two-year agreement required(, it will be delivered to your door"as early as" 22 October 2008.

I warned you. I really did. But now it's officially upon ustoday's the first day of Fall. Did you sense the pall over the blogosphere )that has nothing to do with posting slowing down ?(. It's because The Lisa is leaving Bruce Clay . I, for one, will shed a tear. I've just recently rediscovered Google Book Search and I'm loving it. Now there's more to love: Google Book Search integrates book previews on partner sites including Books-a-million and Borders.com.

Two weeks ago, I gave a class on blogging. No, don't worry, you didn't miss the announcement and the chance to rub elbows with my fabulousness, it was a class for my sister's church, as only a handful of people had expressed interest. She and I weren't sure anyone would come at all. However, nearly twice as many people as we expected showed up. Of those, only one didn't have a blog.

I'm currently in the pretty town of Durango, CO. I'm here to speak to a group of government CIOs about the benefits of social media. However, after checking into my room-and taking the photo below from my balcony-I wish I were here to just fish. No big announcements in the world today, but here's what I managed to hook The New York Times explains why advertisers have nothing to fear from a Google/Yahoo deal. Meanwhile,

I'm still miffed about Wednesday's party, so I'll only be speaking to you through links. Bad news. According to Nielsen, the online display market's growth has stalled . Do we believe it? The Wall Street Journal, however, has a Rallying Cry for Display Ads . A rallying cry on Talk Like a Pirate day? How appropriate. Yahoo Apex, their multiformat advertising platform, was first announced seven months ago . Now it's like Obi-Wan Kenobi it's their only hope .

It's like when one of those Hollywood couples who you thought would really last breaks up. Okay, no, not really. It's more like when one of those Hollywood couples who you thought "WHAT? Why? That's gotta be Photoshopped" breaks up. After 16 months of marriage, eBay is rumored to be looking for buyers for the popular social discovery service StumbleUpon. The reports come from TechCrunch 's venerable sources that eBay is in touch with Deutsche Bank to find a buyer.