That’s not exactly on the menu for a new mobile application being launched by the iconic adult-oriented media company today, called Scout (although BoomTown wishes it were).

Powered by Xtify’s geolocation push notification technology, Scout will be available first in New York and Los Angeles, and initially only on smartphones using Google’s Android mobile operating system.

Users of the Scout app get exclusive nightlife-oriented offers and information about events, clubs and bars aggregated by Playboy’s editors. And when users are near any of these venues, they get push notifications alerting them.

In a statement, Paul Lee, Playboy’s recently installed head of new digital ventures, noted the move was to leverage the famous Playboy brand.

“Scout is a first step in Playboy’s strategy of utilizing new digital platforms to extend our brand in the nightlife arena and to build new revenue streams for the company,” he said.

Playboy could use any help it can get right about now. Yesterday, the company reported a wider loss than expected, due to increasing weakness in its television and publishing divisions, even as it tries to grow via the licensing of assets such as its well-known bunny logo.

Presumably, using that brand to combine relevant content and location-triggered push notifications is yet another attempt to right itself.

Here are two screenshots of the Scout app (click on the images to make them larger):

And here is the official press release:

Xtify Powers Playboy Scout Mobile Application with Location-Based Messaging Technology

Playboy’s Nightlife and Entertainment Content Will Now Reach Users Wherever They Are, Whenever It’s Most Relevant

NEW YORK, November 10, 2010–Xtify, Inc. today announced the release of Playboy Scout, a mobile application enhanced with location-triggered content delivery using the company’s geo-location push notification technology. Playboy Scout is available on Android™ phones nationwide and will soon be launched on other smartphone platforms. The Scout application presents Playboys audience with exclusive nightlife oriented offers and information about events, clubs, and bars which have been reviewed and recommended by Playboy’s editors, and delivers push notifications to users when they are in proximity of venues of interest.

“Scout puts Playboy’s nightlife expertise in the hands of our customers at the time and place they’re most likely to use it–when they’re out with friends and looking for new experiences,” said Paul Lee, managing director of new digital ventures, Playboy Enterprises, Inc. “The Playboy brand and the Xtify platform allow us to offer a compelling value proposition in the location-based space, and we’re excited to leverage Xtify’s innovative messaging technology to deliver new services to customers. Scout is a first step in Playboy’s strategy of utilizing new digital platforms to extend our brand in the nightlife arena and to build new revenue streams for the company.”

Xtify offers the only location-based push notification technology that allows publishers to send notifications to their mobile audience even when the application is closed. To access Playboy Scout, customers simply download the Scout application directly from the Android Market™ to their smartphones to begin receiving mobile alerts featuring content such as VIP access to Playboy events and venue reviews from Playboy’s editors. Xtify’s geo-location platform allows Playboy’s Scout application to alert customers of nightlife events and local points of interest, without the customer needing to open the application.

“Playboy is an authority in the nightlife space with entertainment content that is even more relevant when unleashed from the confines of a computer or magazine,” said Josh Rochlin, CEO of Xtify. “With the Scout application, we are seeing the future of how geo-enabled offerings will allow brands to have a more meaningful relationship with their mobile customers. Xtify’s push notification technology and management tools make it easy for Playboy to deliver the most relevant, timely and highly engaging offers and content to its readers, ensuring a satisfying consumer experience with each notification.”

“When Mr. Hefner opened the first Playboy Club in Chicago, the brand redefined nightlife,” said Jimmy Jellinek, Chief Content Officer, Playboy Enterprises, Inc. “Today the Playboy brand continues to be an authority on nightlife and we intend to leverage that expertise in the digital realm.”

The Playboy Scout application is now live in New York City and Los Angeles with additional cities receiving the alert system throughout 2011. City content will also be updated every few weeks as new locations are reviewed by Playboy’s editors. Additionally, users will be alerted to special offers and perks in select cities across the country.

This video is clearly cooked up for virality, but BoomTown fell for it anyway.

In it, a cute little girl starts dancing like any kid would–which is to say, all goofy and silly. But, lo, she is then joined by a bunch of adults and begins a choreographed number that would do Beyoncé proud.

And then, at the end, the kicker: It is all part of an advertisement for Samsung’s Galaxy 580 mobile phone.

Giant, prolonged, I-was-totally-snookered sigh.

Still, enjoy:

Microsoft’s new search engine Bing–which debuted at our D7 conference last week–unexpectedly went live this morning ahead of its scheduled June 3 launch date and it’s already done much to distinguish itself from Microsoft’s previous efforts in search.

Certainly, there’s far more verb potential in Bing than “Microsoft Live Search,” the service it’s replacing. And–beyond all this silliness about Bing’s prowess in adult entertainment queries (ever tried a similar search in Google (GOOG) or Yahoo (YHOO)?)–there’s a lot to impress. Bing is fast–very fast, actually. Its local results are robust, accurate and usable.

This search for “pizza near 94117,” for example, returns not just a list of pizza parlor homepages, but phone numbers, directions, reviews, coupons and bird’s eye maps as well. Video search is deep and the ability to further calibrate it by length, screen size and resolution is a nice touch. It offers a 411 service similar to Google’s.

And it’s UI is sleek, although the choice of hot air balloon background is begging for a wisecrack. There’s plenty of hot air in Microsoft’s claim that Bing is a “decision engine, designed to empower people to gain insight and knowledge from the Web, moving more quickly to important decisions.” That said, the engine does seem to be delivering, at least initially, on that promise.

Question is: Can Bing boost Microsoft’s market share in search from the mid-single digits to something more respectable?

Looks like Craigslist is trying to do the same thing. The online classified ad service is shutting down its “Erotic Services” section under pressure from state and local officials from around the country. In its place, Craigslist will open an “adult” category. It promises to keep said area cleaner by having employees sweep it periodically for ads that are obviously soliciting prostitution, etc. AP:

“We’re very encouraged that Craigslist is doing the right thing in eliminating its online red light district with prostitution and pornography in plain sight. We’ll be watching and investigating critically to make sure this measure is more than just a name change,” said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

Good luck. As Gawker points out, this stuff is very likely to end up somewhere else on Craigslist because that’s the nature of the beast.

But still, not a bad idea. Internet + sex is always an attractive target for crusading lawmakers with an eye for a good headline (see MySpace, “sexting,” etc.). Craigslist is a higher-profile target than ever these days as it shares boogeyman status with Google (GOOG) for people looking to blame the death of newspapers on… something.

And the “move it somewhere else” strategy can work. Spread the bad stuff around–or at least into lower-profile places–and it seems less upsetting. As a reminder, here’s a semifictionalized version of what Times Square used to look like circa mid-1970s, via “Taxi Driver”: