If you’re like me, you need a better way to keep track of the things in your life. I remember a time where I used to keep a crusty old spiral notebook with a picture of Kirby Puckett on it that had a list of all the books I wanted to read (I am embarrassed to say, that notebook lasted much farther into adulthood than it should have). Whenever I would get a recommendation for a book from a friend or read a review that piqued my interest, I’d trot out the notebook and make an entry. Eventually this migrated to an Excel spreadsheet, but this also became cumbersome because it wasn’t interjected into the flow of how I lived my everyday life and used the web.

We realized there has to be a better way of doing this.

With the opening of Facebook’s API - Eureka! An opportunity to solve the problem presented itself because 1) Facebook was already in the path of my everyday life, and 2) My friends were already on Facebook.

As other social networks like MySpace, Bebo, and Orkut announced their intentions to allow the social graph to be leveraged, we began to percolate on how we could allow people on various different social networks to benefit from the information created by others. Enter LivingSocial . We think the future of successful products on the web is to create a platform where products can be used where you already go regularly - something that plugs into the flow of your every day life and goes to you and your friends instead of making everyone go somewhere else.

What LivingSocial accomplishes (or aims to):

1) You'll always trust the recommendations of your friends more than you will Amazon or other recommendation engines that don't take into account your personal relationships. Think about how frequently your friend/spouse/co-worker says "Wow, you have to see this movie" or "I had the burger at "x" and it was absolutely the best burger I've had". Based on how well you know the person and your past history with he/she, you quickly can determine whether the recommendation is useful. LivingSocial goes where your friends are already.

2) Go where you are. If you're a Facebook user who likes beer, it's fine with us if you use our Facebook version of DrinkingSocial. If you're a MySpace user who like beer, it's fine with us if you use our MySpace version of DrinkingSocial. Or, if you don't like social networks, you can just use DrinkingSocial. The point is, if you're a beer drinker, book reader, movie watcher, or any of the other interests we support, we don't want to tell you that you need to go to "X" site in order to organize your interest and get recommendations from your friends. You can choose which experience you want to use.

3) Bridge the social network divide. If you're a huge fan of Ayn Rand books and you use our ReadingSocial Facebook app, and there is a vibrant forum discussion on our ReadingSocial MySpace app, we think you should benefit and be able to take part in that discussion. To that end, we've made our content portable to all of our networks.



LivingSocial is very much in its infancy, but we absolutely would love any thoughts or feedback you may have.

Out at GraphingSocial Patterns in San Diego, we were fortunate enough to be chosen to demo one of our products in the OpenSocial division of the app contest. After putting some finishing touches on things that afternoon, Aaron took to the stage and presented ReadingSocial .

The demo consisted of showing our Facebook app, Visual Bookshelf integrated with our sandbox versions of ReadingSocial in Orkut, MySpace, and Bebo. We showed how, literally a MySpace user could respond to question from a Facebook user. Lastly, we tried to tie it all together by showing how it was all accessible outside of any social network at ReadingSocial , which is part of LivingSocial .

Thanks to Dave McClure, Charles Rive Ventures and Social Media for supplying the prize of a Gift Certificate to the Apple Store for a MacBook Air. For more coverage, check out Rafe Needleman from CNet's Webware blog or a Video interview with Information Week's TechTV.

We have a cool new site we’ve been working hard on that we just released into a very early sneak preview format called LivingSocial. It lets you better keep track of the things that you’re interested in like books, movies, music, video games, restaurants, and beer. And instead of being a brand new social network where you need to invite your friends, LivingSocial lets you take advantage of your trusted friend connections that you have on social networks you may already use, like Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo. Our applications that exist in Facebook like Visual Bookshelf, or on MySpace like DrinkingSocial, share their content with topics within LivingSocial, so you can simply link those accounts and you can browse the bookshelves or “fridges” of your friends, see their reviews, and get recommendations.

LivingSocial is still a big work in progress, but you can register for the site and link your Facebook and Bebo accounts (MySpace coming soon). Please feel free to send any and all comments or bug reports to feedback@livingsocial.com