by Claudine Zap Babies. So cute. In their diapers with their bottles in a'bar? The hipster scene in Brooklyn seems to start at a very early age. According to CNN , babies in bars are a regular occurrence . Oh, and their parents come, too. See what else Brooklyn parents are up to . In dense New York neighborhoods packed with local watering holes and blessed with high birth rates,

Twitter is expected to launch an ad platform this month (some have speculated this will happen at SXSW). While this hasn't been confirmed, the industry has been waiting for quite some time to Twitter to launch such a monetization model. That's not to say the industry has been sitting on its hands as it's waited. Third-parties have taken it upon themselves to offer services for Twitter, that Twitter itself doesn't offer. That includes apps of course ,

The Better Business Bureau is warning people about the practices and claims of some online payday lenders. "Desperate times are leading people to the Internet to apply for payday loans and many are falling deeper into debt after getting tangled up with a lender who has zero regard for the law," said Stephen A. Cox, President and CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. "Unlike a payday loan that you might get from a local business,

When Google made its dramatic "new approach to China" announcement in January, it sounded as if the company might leave the country within the month. Obviously, that didn't happen. But according to testimony given today before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, Google hasn't forgotten its ultimatum. Nicole Wong, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, spoke today about China, the Internet, and censorship, and by way of recap,

As we've written about a lot lately, local search is continuing to evolve, and that evolution is not just coming from the biggest names in search. We recently had a discussion with RateItAll President Lawrence Coburn about user location-sharing as new kind of query that can yield local business results. ChaCha is bringing in Q&A to local search . Another site, called AlikeList aims to make local search a social experience,

Continuing with the conference's theme of transformation, Darren Huston, CVP of Consumer and Online, Microsoft shared his thoughts what agencies and advertisers can do to stay ahead of the transformation. He compared it to the much needed forest fire that clears the old trees to give room for the new growth. Creating the movie " Avatar ", which took 5 years and hundreds of millions of dollars, is one recent example of ground-breaking transformation.

by Mike Krumboltz Gender-bending frogs? 67-million-year-old snakes? Perfectly preserved wooly mammoths? These tale tales might sound like they come out of a comic book, but they're totally true. Frogs go from male to female When exposed to weed-killer chemicals, some male frogs develop female reproductive systems and the ability to lay eggs. Huh? The bizarre discovery was recently highlighted in a buzzy article from the Washington Post . In a study published on Monday,

A little more than a month ago, Google introduced click-to-call phone numbers in local ads on smartphones. Now, the popular program's undergoing an expansion as Google's made it easier for large companies to take advantage of the offering. A post on the Inside AdWords blog explained today, "[W]e're bringing the same click-to-call benefits to national advertisers through phone extensions.

The average number of hours spent each week on online gaming has climbed 10 percent since 2009, while an average of 20 percent of all games purchased were digitally downloaded up from 19 percent in 2009, according to a new report from The NPD Group. Among those reporting they personally play video games on at least one type of console, 54 percent said they play games online, down slightly since 2009 and 2008 (56% and 55% respectively).

Caleb writes, "There's a strange snippet for the query [2010 academy awards]. It's longer and more carefully constructed". TomHTML in the forum wonders "if there is any partnership between the Oscars and Google". (I asked Google for a comment and will post an update if there's more info.) [Thanks Caleb and Tom !