TechCrunch is giving the world its first look at The New York Times' forthcoming iPad app News.me. Being developed in collaboration with betaworks, the app doesn't look anything like News Corp's iPad "newspaper" The Daily. "News.me is a social news reading app that presents the news that the people you follow on Twitter are reading, and filters it based on how many times those stories are shared and clicked on overall," writes TechCrunch reporter Erick Schonfeld, who said he's been testing an early version of the app. News.me apparently pulls in data from Twitter as well as bit.ly, the …

Who says Google doesn't get social? Reviews from its new Hotpot place recommendation service will now be incorporated directly in search results. "So say you're looking for a restaurant in Barcelona," explains Google product manager Lior Ron. "If a friend has rated a particular restaurant, you might see their rating and what they had to say about it -- as well as their name and photo -- directly beneath that restaurant's listing." If uses want to see only the recommendations from friends, they can select the Places filter from the left sidebar and then select "Just friends." According to

On the heels of, er, Clickstreamgate, Microsoft is accusing Google of foul play by only natively supporting its WebM video format in its Chrome browser, rather than the H.264 format preferred by Microsoft and Apple. "In response, Microsoft said it will build a Chrome plug in that will restore support for H.264, an older and more commonly used video format," reports AllThingsD's Mobilized blog. "Our point of view is totally clear," Internet Explorer head Dean Hachamovitch writes in a Wednesday blog post. "Our support for H.264 results from our views about a robust web and video ecosystem that provides …

Varick Media Management, the digital media-buying platform division of MDC Partners, this morning said it Evidon will be its "preferred provider" of compliance services for the management of the Digital Advertising Alliance's self –regulatory program for online behavioral advertising.

Mattel is partnering with General Mills, placing custom-designed Hot Wheels pullback racers in certain cereal boxes. Each box also comes with a promotional code, enabling kids to log on to the toy marketer's Hot Wheels Racing Circuit site, racing against other players. "The four cars are unique and exclusive to General Mills," Ed Horasz, Mattel's director of global strategic alliances, tells Marketing Daily. "The idea was to give the General Mills consumer not only a physical product they could collect, but also a more interactive experience, as well--it's just a different way to connect with consumers, letting them live …

In what may be the first online audience buying system aimed squarely at the Hispanic marketplace, Havas' Adnetik unit is spinning of a Latino market version of its Audience Investment Management (AIM) system. Dubbed AIM Latino, the Adnetik said the platform is able to target as many as 70 million impressions daily across eight of the largest ad exchanges.

Gap Inc. has named Seth Farbman--currently a managing director at Ogilvy & Mather--as its new CMO, and hired Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide as its new ad agency. The moves are part of sweeping changes at Gap Inc.'s floundering flagship, which the company hopes will "kick-start" a new marketing direction . It ditched Marka Hansen, who has been president of Gap North America, naming Art Peck, a six-year company veteran, to fill the post. And Pam Wallack, currently president of its Gap Adult North America team, has been named head of something called Gap's new "Global Creative Center." That unit …

AOL’s total revenues fell 26%, while advertising sales plummeted 29% during the fourth quarter of 2010 vs. the same quarter in 2009, according to an earnings release distributed this morning. Display, especially domestic sales, were the strongest component of AOL’s fourth quarter advertising pie, though its overall display revenues also declined 14%, as international display sales dove 53%.Search and contextual sales also fell precipitously, dropping 34%.

Google's Latitude has had a much lower profile in the social location space compared to the likes of Foursquare and Gowalla. But that may start to change with the addition of check-ins to the service, letting users go beyond showing where they are on a map to checking in at actual Google Places locations. "Until today, sharing my location let friends and family know if I was across the globe or in their neighborhood. Now, check-ins let them see the cool restaurant I'm trying in Taipei or join me for a latte at the cafe nearby," stated a Google Mobile …

What’s a downloaded app worth? Not as much as their publishers would have you believe. Indeed, 1-in-4 downloaded apps are used just once, according to a new study from analytics firm Localytics. Worse still, the company found that one-time app usage was slowly on the rise throughout 2010 -- in the first quarter it was around 22%, but by the end of the year it grew to 28%. “The big takeaway from the news for mobile app developers is that first impressions of your app matter greatly,” writes VentureBeat, “and you should also pay more attention to the number …