Facebook to start testing ads in mobile apps

Facebook will start testing the delivery of ads in select mobile apps, the company announced Wednesday. As more users turn to mobile, Facebook advertisers have been looking for ways to reach these people.

Facebook notes that the goal of this test is to demonstrate that Facebook can drive results both on and off the site.

When asked which apps would be a part of the test, a Facebook spokesperson noted that the company has nothing else to share at this time.

Here’s the announcement on the Facebook for Business blog:

To improve the relevancy of the ads people see, provide even greater reach for Facebook advertisers and help mobile developers better monetize their apps, we’re running a small test to show Facebook ads in mobile apps. Our aim is to demonstrate even greater reach with the same power of Facebook targeting for advertisers both on and off Facebook.

While we have run similar tests in the past, this current test is more like a mobile ad network in that we are working directly with a small number of advertisers and publishers rather than an outside ad-serving platform.

The current test is limited to a few advertisers and partners, and we will share more details over the coming months.

Readers: What do you think of this?

Photo courtesy of Tanjala Gica / Shutterstock.com.

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Should You Start Playing Pokemon?

by Sylvie Krekow, Posted Dec 4th 2013 2:30PM

Gamespot's Danny O'Dwyer has never played Pokemon. Apparently, he didn't grow up with Nintendo products (what a tragic, empty childhood) and now that Pokemon is back with X and Y he's determined to find out if it's worth picking up. "After all these years, is it worth me starting?" he muses. "This Pokemon [thing] looks really fun, and everyone else in the office seems to be loving it."

The verdict? Mixed. Some friends relish the gameplay and the nostalgia that comes with the franchise; others lament it as a repetitive turn-based game. It's also interesting to get an outsider's perspective on Pokemon. At one point, O'Dwyer asks, "How come Pikachu doesn't go in a Pokeball? It's the worst. It's like a cage. Is that not really messed up?" (Danny, you might be comforted by this artist's rendition of what the inside of a Pokeball looks like).

Check out the video to see his final conclusion. And if you need convincing yourself, here's a video review of the latest and greatest in the Pokemon series, X and Y:

Tags: nintendo, nintendo 3ds, play pokemon, Pokemon, pokemon beginner, pokemon news, pokemon review, pokemon x and y, pokemon x and y review, pokemon x y review, pokemon xy, start playing pokemon, start pokemon, starting pokemon

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The Sims Social: Start your new year with free gifts

While most free items in The Sims Social are presented loudly and proudly by Playfish on the game's official Facebook fan page, the first true prize of the new year is actually relatively hidden. As it wouldn't be right to keep this prize to ourselves, we're here with a guide on claiming your free "Kyd's Winter Polar Bear" for your Sim's pad!

The "Kyd's Winter Polar Bear" is only mentioned briefly on the game's fan page on Facebook, and even then, it's only presented as a "Free New Year's Gift." This is surrounded by posts about free collectibles and branded cross-promotional items, so it's easy to assume that this Polar Bear is just another one of those sorts of items. In fact though, this cute little Polar Bear is worth 150 Simoleons, and it adds $100 in Home Value to your pad. It doesn't come with any interactions for your Sim, but it does hold a "2013" sign to remind you of the occasion.

You can claim your free Kyd's Winter Polar Bear for a limited time by clicking on this link. If you go after the Polar Bear on your own, you're looking for a post on the fan page with the image at right. Since we can never have too many free things, keep checking back with us as we'll let you know when the next freebie promotion launches within the Sims Social!

What do you think of this cute Polar Bear item? Will you keep it out all year, or just until winter ends? Sound off in the comments!

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Zynga.com launches in open beta: Start adding zFriends for faster in-game progress

At the first of the month, we brought you an overview of the new Zynga.com, a new way to play your favorite Zynga games, make friends and earn quicker progress across your games than by playing on Facebook. The Zynga.com experience has now launched in open beta, meaning that some features are still lacking, but you can definitely jump into this new way to play.

As a refresher, you're not leaving any of your progress or friends behind when playing on Zynga.com - all of your kingdoms, cities and Words with Friends games (as examples) will be there waiting for you when you jump in. The biggest part of this open beta is actually being able to add new friends in the form of zFriends. These players will be able to help you in your favorite games, and you'll be able to help them in return, but you don't have to add them as Facebook friends in order to do so. In this way, your privacy remains intact but you still gain the ability to earn collectibles, quest items or free gifts that much easier.

Each person on Zynga.com has their own profile, where you can see which Zynga games they play, their current level in those games, and how often they play. You'll also be able to see a feed of each player's recent activity across all games. Say a player completes a quest in CastleVille, that item will show up on their activity feed. Or, if a player makes a request for an in-game item, like a Clue to expand their Manor in Hidden Chronicles, you'll see that too. From each profile page, you can choose to send them a zFriend request, or look at their own friends to continue to social circle growth. You can also see your friends' online status and can chat with them if you'd like to really make friends.

As for playing the games themselves, you can choose from the games currently available on the site (which isn't complete as of this writing), and will see the same game you'd find on Facebook, down to the Zynga Messaging Center that appears, giving you quick access to your gift requests. The helpful ticker along the right side of the screen allows you to send items to all people playing the game, and hopefully receive some rewards of your own along the way.

Ultimately, this beginning experience on Zynga.com should be used to acclimate yourself to the site's layout, and as a way to fill out your zFriends list with plenty of new in-game neighbors so that you'll really be ready to make progress when the rest of the site's features come online. We'll make sure to let you know when that happens, so keep checking back with us!

Have you tried Zynga.com? How many zFriends have you found so far on the site? Do you think you'll eventually use Zynga.com as your preferred method of playing Zynga's games, or will you continue to play on Facebook proper as you do now? Sound off in the comments.

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Everybody, start your engines: Zynga will go public on Dec. 16 [Report]

Did you remember your enormous salt shaker? Good, because Reuters reports that Zynga, everybody's favorite social game maker, will make its stock market debut on Dec. 16. According to Reuters, the CityVille creator will look to raise $900 million, a hair down from the almost unanimously-reported $1 billion that will bring its valuation to $14 billion.

But hey, that's still right on par with the most valuable games company in the West, Activision Blizzard. (Of course, Reuters cites "a source involved in the process.") Zynga will reportedly ask between $8 and $10 a share on the Nasdaq under the ticker ZNGA--a fairly noticeable one, no? However, Reuters does confirm that Zynga will start its roadshow next week to spur investor interest.

That is, if investors can look past the recent torrent of reports and quips that don't paint the prettiest picture of the company behind FarmVille. The New York Times allegedly revealed that Angry Birds maker Rovio turned down a $2.25 billion offer from the company, while a recent Wall Street Journal report seems to have exposed quite the stock scandal within Zynga. Worse yet, players are apparently leaving in droves. It's time for Zynga to shift into third gear: That $900 million is atop one giant hill.

Would you ever invest in Zynga at such a price? Do you think the company could at least become the second most valuable games company in the US? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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FarmVille German items start an Oktoberfest celebration

Here's one update I honestly didn't think we'd see come to FarmVille so soon. With the Halloween theme officially launching in the game earlier this week, we've seen yet another theme - German, or Oktoberfest - launch tonight as well. This theme is relatively small (so far), consisting of nothing but buildings and decorations that are re-releases of those items seen in a previous German theme. Whether or not we'll see any trees or specific animals launch as well is anyone's guess. For now, let's take a look at what's available so far.

Buildings

Festival Wheel - 38 Farm Cash
Festival Tent - 34 Farm Cash

I have to admit, even for its high price, the Festival Wheel (Ferris Wheel) is still one of the neatest looking items I can remember seeing launched in the game (it was originally available in last year's German event). This thing has it all - animation in the wheel itself and lights throughout as though it were at a real carnival. I'll tell you one thing: it will be hard for me not to personally splurge on one of these items for my own farm this year.

Decorations

German Gnome - 18 Farm Cash
Festival Carriage - 22 Farm Cash
Festival Gnome - 18 Farm Cash
Cider Stand - 120,000 coins
Festival Pavilion - 240,000 coins
Barrel Tub - 120,000 coins

Again, all of these items are re-releases of those seen in the game previously, so you'll want to take a few moments to search your storage for any of them so that you don't needlessly purchase duplicates (especially if the item costs Farm Cash).

It will be interesting to see if any other items release that are actually new to the German theme this year, but for now, you've got seven days to purchase any of these items that have come back around.

Are you happy to see these items re-released in the game's store, or did you purchase all of the items you wanted last year? Sound off in the comments.

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World changing entrepreneurs & companies start small

(not really back to blogging, but had a spare moment and thought to blog after a long time).

I was reading up today how Dustin Moskovitz (Facebook co-founder, now Asana founder), Peter Thiel & Max Levchin of Paypal fame et al were lamenting at Techcrunch Disrupt how the startups in the valley don’t do enough to “change the world”. I found myself nodding as well as shaking my head.

Sure, we’ve got enough of people trying to solve photo sharing. Like films (Deep Impact, Armageddon) there seems to be trends that follow-on entrepreneurs pile on. Cloning and iteration do benefit the industry, but you also want folks to working on something new and innovative. Agreed with these gentlemen there.

At the same time it boggles my mind that these awesome entrepreneurs are pooh-poohing companies that start small. Facebook started out as a hot-or-not clone called Facemash. Mark Zuckerberg gave an interview in 2005 that there probably wouldn’t be much more to be done outside of college & university audiences. Peter & Max started Paypal with a relatively small concept of beaming money from a Palm Pilot to another.

I believe world changing companies and entrepreneurs start small by necessity. When you find traction, you scale both as the company and as the entrepreneur. Dustin, Peter and Max have scaled and so have their ambitions and their point of view. I’m sure they remember exactly where they come from and how they started small, but they see “wider” now. I don’t think they are dishing the best kind of advice though. Yes, you need a vision for a big company that at best times will change the world for better, but you absolutely need to start small. Unless you already co-founded Facebook, Paypal, Genentech, AdMob, Google, … and can afford to short circuit the process (of scaling yourself as an entrepreneur & resources for your company).

Start small. Scale when you can. Work towards a big vision.

Be the first to like this post.Explore posts in the same categories: business This entry was posted on September 13, 2011 at 18:30 and is filed under business. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

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Only in FarmVille would money start growing on trees; Coin Tree found

Leave it to Zynga to take a cliche and turn it into the real deal ... sort of. Several players have noticed that, in the FarmVille Mastery Charts for trees, a Coin Tree has appeared around the fourth page. The tree, of course, will have Mastery ratings when released.

So far, we know that its first tier of Mastery will take 75 harvests to reach, but its Level 2 form is currently not listed. (The logical progression would be a Farm Cash Tree, no? Keep dreaming.)

The tree is not available on the Market yet. But there's one thing that's bugging us: Trees already provide Coins when harvested, so what will make this one so special? Will it provide more coins than normal trees? That's the only possibility we can imagine at the moment.

That being said, our wild speculation for the day (so far) is that this tree will either be a reward for one seriously challenging Goal or be put on sale for Farm Cash. Call us cynical, but our bet is on the latter--prove us wrong, Zynga.

[Via FarmVille Freak]

Have you seen the Coin Tree in your Mastery chart? When and how do you hope this tree will be released, and what will that Level 2 tree be? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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