Save 50% on a 3-month Digiday+ membership. Ends Dec 5.
The Feed is Digiday’s Web-culture corner. Check The Feed everyday for Web-culture news roundups, infographics, essays and more. Follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day @SWeissman.
Animated GIFs Rethought: Love ’em or hate ’em, GIFs are now everywhere on the Web. Perhaps it is their kitschy 90s-throwback vibe and millennials’ affinity for ironic reclamation of things past and/or previously thought to be uncool that have made GIFs a Web trend (there are Tumblrs upon Tumblrs devoted to GIFs). But anyway, creative folks at Digital Kitchen Seattle took it upon themselves over the holiday season to add their own spin on the GIF by building a three-framed animated GIF photo booth, which they are calling the protobooth. Check out the moving results. This is DK

No One Knows You Better Than Google: Google caused a predictable privacy uproar yesterday by announcing it will track data across all Google platforms and link this data together in order to make user experiences’ across all of these platforms better. The Atlantic measures Google’s new policy by categorizing the changes that it entails as being either evil or useful. A major issue on the evil side of things is that you can’t opt out of Google’s new privacy policy. The Atlantic Wire
McDonald’s Twitter Fail: You would think that after it’s latest Twitter hashtag fiasco in which Twitter users hijacked the #McDstories campaign to tweet about McDonald’s horror stories. But no, McD’s is going at it agen with a new hashtag campaign, #LittleThings. McDonald’s kicked off the campaing with this tweet:
No line at the bank, a large tax refund, & those extra fries at the bottom of the bag. What are some #LittleThings that bring you joy?
— McDonald’s (@McDonalds) January 25, 2012
Massive brands opening up unfiltered social dialogues can be dangerous, for the brands that is. Somehow I don’t think this will go over how they want it to. Mashable
Tumblr of the Day: Another Ryan Gosling Tumblr. Sorry, but I can’t ever get sick of him. Typographer Ryan Gosling

Ad position: web_incontent_pos1
Video of the Day: James Franco has a new Web series that is shot on flip cams? Yup. James Franco on WhoSay
More in Media
Digiday+ Research Subscription Index 2025: Subscription strategies from Bloomberg, The New York Times, Vox and others
Digiday’s third annual Subscription Index examines and measures publishers’ subscription strategies to identify common approaches and key tactics among Bloomberg, The New York Times, Vox and others.
From lawsuits to lobbying: How publishers are fighting AI
We may be closing out 2025, but publishers aren’t retreating from the battle of AI search — some are escalating it, and they expect the fight to stretch deep into 2026.
Media Briefing: Publishers turn to vertical video to compete with creators and grow ad revenue in 2026
Publishers add vertical video feeds to their sites to boost engagement, attract video ad spend and compete with news creators.
Ad position: web_bfu