Here at LivingSocial we're all about keeping things fresh and appealing, which is why we're proud to introduce you to the newly-redesigned LivingSocial! We appreciate your patience as we roll it out and welcome any comments you have at feedback@livingsocial.com.

We've been hard at work on a design that makes it easier to interact with your collection and see recommendations both from our community and your friends. Read on to learn more about all of the improvements we've made to the LivingSocial experience.

The first thing you'll notice is our new look. Gone are the days of the dark LivingSocial bar running across the top of your screen. In its place you'll find a nice bright green header, with a sleek silver navigation bar beneath it that lets you view your profile, collection, recommendations, leaderboards, settings, and our newest exciting feature: trends! The trends feature enables you to see what's most popular on LivingSocial by week, month, or all time. It also shows the the biggest movers, so you'll never be out of the loop on what's hot!

The next feature change you'll notice is the way you add items to your collection. When you visit an item page, you'll notice a beautiful blue button that says "Add to my collection." When you click it, you'll see a drop down that let's you add it to your collection as easy as 1-2-3!

Speaking of numbers, you're also going to notice that all item images on LivingSocial now have a number at the lower right hand corner. These numbers are there to show you what percentage of people like that item.

The last major enhancement we've added will improve the quality of recommendations we give you by basing them on the type of things you like in your collection. You can find our recommendations in three places: 1) click on the "recommendations" tab in the navigation bar at the top of the page; 2) scroll to the "Try Something New!" section at the bottom of the homepage; 3) you'll notice that sometimes we'll surface recommendations directly to you when you're on an item page. We hope you'll find our recommendations relevant and useful!

We know change is hard, but we think in this case it's definitely for the better and hope that you'll agree! We appreciate your patience as we roll the site out this week and work through any issues. We also want to know your thoughts and encourage you to share them with us at feedback@livingsocial.com. Until next time, keep LivingSocial!

-----

An update:

We know that there are some bugs in the current site, and our development team is working to fix them as quickly as possible. A few things that will be back in the next couple days (some of them broke during the push yesterday, others are still being re-worked):

• Scrolling carousels on profile pages only
• More interaction with your friends (friends list, what your friends are doing, etc)
• Commenting/Discussions
• Updated profile tab in Facebook
• User medals on profile pages

...as well as several new features. Again, we appreciate your patience as we perform this massive upgrade. This new design is enabling us to bring more relevant content to you and will enable us to expand to include several of the most requested features from users.

Don't you wish you could rock out in front of hundreds of thousands of screaming fans for a living? Unfortunately, most of us don't have the musical skills to pay the bills. Instead, we like to get our fill of musical glory by shredding the guitar or banging the drums with games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero. These games are so popular that now we can even pretend to be a part of some of our favorite bands of all time like Aerosmith, Metallica, and soon, The Beatles.

The Beatles Rock Band is about to come out and looks awesome, but there are plenty of others out there that absolutely rock. One of our favorites is the AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack. This adds almost 20 new songs, all by AC/DC, to your Rock Band repertoire. If you're a fan of AC/DC you will agree with Saire's realization that, "live tracks translate well as you are on a virtual stage performing," and Julio, who says "the live dimension gives this game an extra edge."

If you'd rather get your fill with the Guitar Hero brand instead of Rock Band, you've got plenty of options to choose from! Guitar Hero Aerosmith gives you a whole series of Aerosmith classics to play at your leisure. Die-hard Aerosmith fans like Sergio point out that this game makes "hardcore Aerosmith fans rejoice," but if your guitar hero skills are off the hook then beware, Roger tells us he easily, "ran through the whole thing on hard in one sitting." Evidently Joe Perry is no match for Roger!

And for all you headbangers out there, give Guitar Hero Metallica a shot. Benjamin says that "there are few others that can compare," and unlike Roger's claim to Aerosmith's easy fame, he also adds that "the speed and complexity of the solos in this game are ridiculous." That's pretty fitting, frankly, since Metallica is one ridiculously good metal band.

As if all of these band specific rock games weren't good enough, you'll soon be able to woo the ladies like Lennon, or shred like Van Halen when Beatles Rock Band and Guitar Hero Van Halen are released. So when you're done rockin' out for your siblings and goldfish, head on over to LivingSocial: Video Games to tell everyone what you think about these rockin' games, and vote for your favorite - Rock Band or Guitar Hero - by taking our LivingSocial Rock Video Game Poll!

Hi everyone,

There have been a few articles and posts in recent days that claim LivingSocial sells or shares private user information from Facebook or our applications with advertisers. The claims are untrue, and are based on (false) assumptions and unchecked facts.

LivingSocial does not sell or share data with brands or advertisers.
We don’t share, sell or expose individual user data, Facebook profile information, or even anonymized aggregate data to others. Period.

Here’s how we work with advertisers: we allow them to request that we display advertising around specific areas of interest, like movies and music, in our application screens and on our main web site. An example of this would be if you're browsing lists in our music section, you might see an advertisement for a concert tour of a band. This is similar to how a sports site might have an advertisement for sporting tickets. But we do not pass, send, or sell any of your private data to them as part of that process.

We value your trust, and will continue to respect your privacy. As always, thanks for being part of LivingSocial.

Tim O'Shaughnessy
CEO

We've been inspired by the folks of Mario Marathon, a program that involves three gamers playing all 7 Super Mario games non-stop in an attempt to complete 100% of each title to raise money for Child's Play, a charity that dedicates itself to improving the lives of children in hospitals around the country. We figured if they can stay up that long playing video games, the least we could do was write about it!

Let's start at the very beginning with Super Mario Brothers. We've all spent countless hours playing this, making Mario the most recognizable character in console gaming. LivingSocial reviewer Reginald says, "its legacy is undeniable," and Brian calls it, "the game that started everything." Super Mario Bros. for Nintendo proves that it's pretty hard to beat an original!

The next major innovation in the series was Super Mario 64. Mario went 3D and boy did people love it; even the oh-so-highly discerning LivingSocial masses gave it a rare 5-star average. Jordan D. describes it as, "a rare 3D game that does everything right, from the controls to the gameplay." Apparently its got magical powers too, since it made Kevin "disappear from society for a good month." We're glad to have you back, Kev. We say, dust off that N64 and take a trip down memory lane if you have one, and if you don't, you can (and should) pick one up since they're pretty cheap these days!

And the most recent addition to the Mario family is Super Mario Galaxy for Nintendo Wii. We've yet to see whether it will stand the test of time like some of the other Mario classics, but it's off to a great start in the LivingSocial Galaxy. Sergio thinks it's, "top notch," and Rebecca calls it, "one of the best games for the Wii." Super Mario Galaxy takes things to another level, incorporating a little exercise into the mix, which can't hurt.

So whether you're waving your arms around playing your Wii, or you like to kick it old school with NES, no gaming collection is complete without a Super Mario Bros. The gamers here at LivingSocial will most certainly never get tired of saving Princess Peach from Bowser, so keep them Mario games comin'! In the meantime, be sure to check out Mario Marathon 2, since gaming for a good cause is a great idea!

Don’t you hate it when you learn from a friend that they just got a great deal that you missed out on? It’s happened to me countless times: “Liam, I just got an awesome deal on World of Warcraft” or “I snagged Punch Out for Wii for half off!” And of course when I go to find the same deals, they are gone, much to my chagrin. It’s understandable that we can’t all pick up on awesome deals because there’s plenty of other stuff going on and we can’t just sit around surfing the web all day for opportunities to save money on our favorite video games. We at LivingSocial realize this and we want to help you be the first to know about awesome opportunities to snag your favorite things. In the spirit of knowledge sharing, we’ve started a LivingSocial: Daily Deals Page on facebook, where we post some great deals on a daily basis to help keep you in the know! Become a fan and you’ll get our daily deals as soon as we put them up.

By now there can’t be anyone alive who doesn’t know that Michael Jackson passed away last Thursday from a heart attack. It’s been all over every news station in virtually every country and the web is overloaded with MJ-related information. When I initially wrote our first blog post about Jackson’s passing, I posted it to our Albums, Movies, and Book categories, thinking that those were the only places where Michael Jackson had a presence. Not true! Thanks to my trusty Google Reader, I was able to find out that Michael Jackson a) had a video game for Sega Genesis called Moonwalker; and b) that there has been a huge spike in sales for the game on eBay since Jackson’s passing. A quick stopover at ebay yielded a bunch of versions of Moonwalker ranging in price from $.01 to $1999.99 USD. Will you be buying one?

Pick Your Top 5 Michael Jackson Songs

Pick Your Top 5 Michael Jackson Albums

What’s the Best Michael Jackson Album?

What’s the Best Michael Jackson Video?

And of course, you’ve always got the option to create your own Poll in honor of Michael Jackson to share with friends.

One part of LivingSocial that you have probably never seen is our LivingSocial Events page. Our events page help bring LivingSocial users in New York City, and soon others cities, together for free cocktails.

This event at China 1, is just one of our many upcoming events where you can meet other LivingSocial users away from the computer or just get all of your friends together for a free drink. Just RSVP to any of these events online, print out your code and show up for free drinks and a lot of fun.

If you attend one of these events or you have any suggestions, let us know what you think by emailing us at feedback@livingsocial.com or tweet us @LivingSocial.

Cheers from the team at LivingSocial!

A lot has been going on here at LivingSocial lately. You already know all about our nine LivingSocial categories and the PickYour5 Facebook application. Recently you might also have noticed our

Here is one example of the many polls you can take and share on Facebook. Plus, if you can’t find a Poll you want to take you can just create it yourself and share it with all of your friends. Once you take or finish creating a poll you can choose to display it in your Facebook feed so your friends can comment and take the poll themselves.

Some of our most popular polls include:

• Who is better Messi or Ronaldo
• What’s the best soda?
• Nike or Adidas?
• Who is your favorite comedian?
• Which actor is best?

Between the nine LivingSocial categories and the PickYour5 application on Facebook, a lot of things (from albums to video games) are being rated, reviewed, picked, and added to collections by the LivingSocial community. That begs the question: Which things are popular lately? Based on various stats from April, we’ve compiled popularity rankings for a few of our subject areas as well as the LivingSocial app.

Artists (based on LivingSocial: Albums)

1. Metallica
2. Pink Floyd
3. U2
4. Nirvana
5. Led Zeppelin

Beer

1. Corona
2. Heineken
3. Guinness
4. Blue Moon
5. Budweiser

Movies

1. Twilight
2. Titanic
3. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
4. The Notebook
5. The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring

TV Shows

1. Lost
2. House
3. Friends
4. Heroes
5. CSI

Video Games

1. Call of Duty 4
2. Final Fantasy XII
3. Halo 3
4. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
5. Resident Evil 4

Pick Your Five lists (based on LivingSocial Pick Your Five)

1. Favorite movies of all time
2. Best TV shows
3. 5 Things i don’t leave the house without!
4. Favorite Sports Teams
5. Favorite beer

Here at LivingSocial, we are all about creating lists and categorizing stuff. With 9 subject areas already in place (from books to slopes) and more coming soon, our aim is to help you manage the things you like easily and socially.

It was with those goals in mind that we introduced a new LivingSocial experience on Facebook called Pick Your Five. Pick Your 5 is a simple application that allows you to quickly generate lists of five things, with a title you create, and share those lists with your friends. Every subject area on LivingSocial.com (video games, beer, books, etc.) is available to be picked from in Pick Your 5 along with new categories we’ve added especially for the Pick Your 5 app, like celebrities, hot sauces, countries, pro sports teams, and others.

Above is an image of the creation screen in Pick Your 5. Once you click “Finish,” your pick five list is complete, and it appears on your Facebook stream, so your friends can comment on your choices or pick their own.

Let us know if you have any feedback about Pick Your 5 by emailing us at feedback@livingsocial.com or tweet us @LivingSocial. Also, please, let us know which new categories you want in Pick Your 5 and which of those you most want to see expanded into new subject areas on LivingSocial.com.

First off, let me apologize for the long radio silence over the past few weeks. We haven't been taking an extended holiday, but rather working on a bunch of behind-the-scenes improvements and bug fixes. In other words, we haven't had any cool, new features to talk about, unless of course, you consider search engine optimization or database restructuring sexy.

Not to worry, we're bringing sexy back. In October, we hired a kick-ass designer, Keith, who has been trucking on a more cohesive LivingSocial. The team has been pouring through user-feedback from the last year and contemplating what ways we can provide a better experience.

In doing so, we realized that we have an idea of who we are but aside from a few praise e-mails a week, we really don't know who you think we are. Our solution: we ask you.

Here's the challenge: Describe LivingSocial.

In one word, eight words, or one thousand fifty-two. Draw us a picture. Send us a video. Rap it. Write a poem (which surprisingly, our CEO can do well.) Be creative. Unfiltered is fine - we don't bruise too easily.

In exchange for your creative juices, we'll send you some LivingSocial schwag.

Tweet us @LivingSocial or drop us a line at feedback@livingsocial.com. And don't forget to send us your mailing address for the schwag. ;)

• Ten hours.
  
• 100% Processing Capacity.
  
• Five Developers with no sleep.
  
• 24 Krispy Kreme Donuts.
  
• Unknown Amounts of Coffee.
  
• 100 Million+ reconfigurations of our data.
  
  

The team at LivingSocial has been a little busy since midnight last night, working to complete our largest maintenance and system upgrade we’ve ever undertaken. Our development team has been working overtime to ensure that our activities today went as smooth as possible. While we hate being down for any significant period of time, we think you’ll be ok with our extended absence in the near future.

Our team is still verifying the success of everything we did, so please excuse any unexpected interactions for the next couple hours. We should have everything back to normal soon.

As we come back online, we know that you’re thinking “Why were they down for 10 hours and yet there are no noticeable changes?” We promise the downtime was not in vain; today we’ve migrated our entire database, improving our performance, efficiency, and ability to provide you with useful data. This was the first step of many to delivering a completely revamped experience on LivingSocial. Stay tuned over the next several months as well roll out new features and improvements that were made possible by our maintenance work today.

Today we have two small (but hopefully significant!) changes to announce that impact users’ collections. First off, the “Manage” page is no more. We renamed the page’s title in the header “My Collection,” which is a bit more accurate and easier to understand. In terms of functionality, the page is still the same, so you can still search your collection, give ratings, change statuses, delete, create lists, etc. all from that one place.

Along with the name change, we’ve added the ability for you to show the images of the things in your collection on your “My Collection” page. Click the “show images” link above your collection to display a small thumbnail image for each item. You can prevent the images from displaying by clicking “hide images” at any time. Hopefully, this tweak makes it easier for you to find the things you’re trying to find!

As always, please, don’t hesitate to drop us a line at feedback@livingsocial.com or swing by http://getsatisfaction.com/livingsocial.

After launching Slopes last week, we’re excited to announce our next new subject area: iPhone Apps. If you are like the LivingSocial team, we don’t have a ton of time to download every new app that comes out. Instead, we use the recommendations of our friends to figure out what iPhone apps are essential accessories.

A few weeks back, we decided to create LivingSocial: iPhone apps to solve this problem. Now, you can get recommendations, ratings, and reviews from your friends and figure out what apps are worth your time and money. Plus, we offer direct downloads to the iTunes store, so you don’t even have to go back and forth between your browser and iTunes.

From what we can tell, we’re the first site out there that integrates your friends into the iPhone app experience.

Get started cataloging your favorite iPhone Apps today. If you notice any inaccurate information or have any problems with iPhone apps, drop us a line at feedback@livingsocial.com or swing by GetStatisfaction.

With winter in full effect, the LivingSocial team is pleased to announce our newest subject area: Slopes. Slopes allows you and your friends to catalog your favorite ski and snowboarding destinations, while getting recommendations from LivingSocial on where to go for your next winter vacation. In addition, we've integrated with SnoCountry, providing you with up-to-date information on the current conditions at each slope.

Slopes is the first subject to include detailed information, a trend you will see in all of our future subject areas. If you notice any inaccurate information or have problems with Slopes, drop us a line at feedback@livingsocial.com.