Some movement today in the behavioral marketing arena: Trafficmac and Revenue Science have entered a technology alliance designed to enable multi-site publishers to break out ad packages by site and audience segment for inventory management purposes.

Microsoft this week joins Apple, and a slew of other companies, in the online music game. The software giant has been planning to launch an online music store for some time now. On Thursday, its store will open for business on the MSN Internet network. The music store is part of a bigger launch of Microsoft's latest generation of Windows Media Player.

So, the Republicans are about to hit the Big Apple and many folks have already cleared out of town. Those of us who plan to hang around are figuring out how we'll observe, or participate in the action. And the week promises plenty of action-from the parties and the protests, to the hucksterism and blustery media coverage.

There's an integrated marketing services agency in Austin, Texas called T3 - The Think Tank.

Some news from PointRoll today-the rich media provider has introduced a new polling feature called Pollster. It allows Web users to participate in polls on pop culture trivia, movies, brands, or news events and compare their responses.

AOL's got a decent thing going with its instant messaging client, otherwise known as AIM. AOL racks up some 30 million unique users per month and it's trying to find a way to generate revenue against all those eyeballs.

Forrester Research reported today that U.S. online retail sales will more than double over the next six years, reaching $316 billion by 2010. The research firm projects e-commerce growth to account for 12 percent of total retail sales in 2010, up from nearly 7 percent this year.

Surprise, surprise. Google's stock hit a high of $104.06 on its first day of trading. The stock closed yesterday at $100.34 per share. Not bad, considering the offering price was set at $85, but not so staggering either.

So, it's official. Google is now a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq.

Today, Nielsen//NetRatings reports that U.S. broadband penetration nudged past the 50 percent mark. The Internet audience measurement service reports that at-home broadband access hit 51 percent in July versus 38 percent last July. That's a pretty staggering percentage increase.