Join us Dec. 1-3 in New Orleans for the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit
Farmville in Real Life: Depending on your point of view, the ascent of FarmVille is either a great story of our digital era or a sign of our societal problems. Just take the fact that more virtual tractors are sold in the U.S. than real ones. Remarkable, sure, but also a disturbing comment on the state of the U.S. economy’s propensity to, you know, do real things. Over in the UK, though, there’s a pretty cool melding of the virtual and real worlds. This clever idea: one of the UK’s largest farms, National Trust’s 2,500-acre Wimpole Estate farm, is allowing web users to vote on how to run the farm. This online farming experiment is called MyFarm. People can vote on decisions like what crops to plant, which cow to buy, which fields to use for what, etc. Cute idea, but I don’t know about give web users this much say. Usually that formula doesn’t work out so well. PSFK
Facebook Evil:This is so disgusting and sad and terrible. It really makes me sick. This is oversharing taken to the worst possible extreme: a 24-year-old Australian man Ramazan Acar used his Facebook status to announce that he was murdering his only daughter. He posted ““bout 2 kill ma kid,” and later texted the child’s mother, “It’s ova I did it.” What a sick and stupid individual. He should not have been allowed to have a Facebook account, let alone a child. Social media sites have truly become a mirror and magnifying glass for modern society, and unfortunately a lot of what is reflected and magnified is not so flattering. Techland
Get Directions To: Google Maps has added a pinpoint for “Osama Bin Laden’s Compound.” Hmm, not sure if that is such a good idea, but it is interesting to see through Google satellite view and photos what kind of area the world’s most wanted terrorist was hiding out in for so long. Mashable
Tumblr of the Day: Cheapskates beware! This tumblr will make it be known that you are a stingy tipper. It also offers helpful tipping etiquette advice for anyone who is confused. ³ 15%
Video of the Day: The Bieberster teams up with Casey Heynes (remember? Zangeif kid?) to talk about bullying.
More in Media
Shopify just became the biggest company to launch a Substack newsletter
Shopify is the first company of its kind — an e-commerce platform — to take the plunge into Substack.
News Corp explores multi-LLM licensing playbook
If News Corp were to strike multiple licensing deals, it would be a major signal to the market that the media group isn’t betting on one LLM; it’s building a portfolio and setting the terms.
Media Briefing: Associated Press deal cements Microsoft’s quiet rise in AI licensing
Associated Press has joined Microsoft’s AI content marketplace, as the tech company seeks to strengthen media ties and compete with Google.