Viral Video: Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches” Web-Only Commercial Sets Off Debate

Beauty is apparently still in the eye of the beholder.
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News Byte

Talenthouse Brings in Nokia, Adidas and Coca-Cola to Sponsor Engagement Platform

Los Angeles-based Talenthouse, a global creative collaboration community with two million members, said that it was launching an “engagement” platform with Adidas’s eyewear, Coca-Cola’s Vitaminwater and Nokia to allow its members to be paired with the mega-brands and be sponsored by them. Talenthouse said that artists will get paid based on engagements that their project and their content generates for those brands, which will be able to “integrate their message directly into the artists’ projects & portfolios and become part of all peer to peer social media conversation.”

Like a “Like,” but Better: See.Me Lets You Tip Artists With Actual Money

Like a thumbs-up, except you can use it to buy things.

The Myspace Sweepstakes Drag on–Another Bid Deadline Today As Sale Deadline Looms

The sale of Myspace by its owner News Corp. is still going, going, going, gooooooing on…

TED Again: Iconic Conference Kicks Off 2011 With Gates, a Data Artist and a Wrongologist!

Today, the formal program at the famous TED conference begins and runs to Friday, with the theme title: “The Rediscovery of Wonder.” And, in fact, you might wonder how good a conference has to be for BoomTown to miss the Apple iPad 2 launch in San Francisco tomorrow? That good.

Pandora Files to Raise $100 Million in IPO

Let the floodgates open. First it was LinkedIn, and now it is the music-streaming service Pandora that has filed for an initial public offering.

Lady Gaga + 126,000 Pasty Geeks + Vegas = BoomTown Nirvana

The iconic singer and performance artist Lady Gaga will be appearing at the Consumer Electronics Show later today to unveil “creations” she came up with for Polaroid, as its creative director. Gaga said a year ago here that she would be coming up with “prototypes in marrying the fields of fashion/technology/photography innovation.” Oh, goody. Fishnet stockings that can post pictures to Instagram!

Zynga Drops the Beat With Dr. Dre in Mafia Wars

Zynga has formed a partnership with rapper Dr. Dre, who is using the social gaming phenomenon to promote his first album in more than a decade.

The My-Fill-In-the-Space Reset Is Here, as Struggling Social Network Morphs Into Entertainment Hub

Empty bracket or no empty bracket: Will it work? That’s pretty much the big question at News Corp. tonight, as its much beleaguered social networking site, Myspace, rolls out a new beta version aimed at shifting its fortunes. And how will it do that? By moving dramatically away from its roots as a social networking site–and far, far away from powerhouse Facebook–and becoming a “social entertainment” hub aimed directly at the Gen Y audience.

I'm With the Band: Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda Talks About Online Fan Collaboration Contest

It’s nice to hear enthusiasm on the part of Linkin Park band member Mike Shinoda about an innovative-for-the-music-industry effort to give fans a chance to be part of the iconic Grammy-winning rock band. While some artists or content creators cringe at the ongoing flood of user-generated material that has drastically changed the industry, Shinoda is hoping to find some real talent via a new online contest, called “Linkin Park, Featuring You,” that gives anyone an opportunity to collaborate with the band to produce an original song based on some of the tracks from the forthcoming single “The Catalyst.”