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!

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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.

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

Last week marked the anniversary of Bastille Day and instead of suggesting you storm a prison to celebrate, we figured we'd encourage you to hit the slopes by telling you all about some of the most popular slopes in France. Unfortunately, none of the LivingSocial crew has been able to ski these sweet slopes, so we are going to rely on you to tell us what they are like.

The most added slope in France is Chamonix Mont-Blanc. A slope that Michael tells us has a "truly amazing range of terrain," and a "great nightlife in town." If that isn't enough to get you there, Stephen said it has "some of the best off-piste you will find without a helicopter." With reviews like these, you should definitely add this place to your list of slopes to visit. And hey, if you do make it over there, be sure to pick up some of those fancy Mont-Blanc pens!

Next up is Val D'Isere in Val D'Isere, France (no points for creativity in naming this slope). Jill says Val D'Isere is like, "dying and going to ski heaven." We want to know, do they serve Crepes in ski heaven? While Jill is chilling (literally) in ski heaven when she's here, Frank stays grounded and calls Val D'Isere's terrain "Europe at it's best." So what you're saying is this is a slice of European heaven? Our bags are packed and we're ready to go!

We'll end this little tribute to the French alps by highlighting a real doozy of a slope: Val Thorens. Although this is the third most added slope in France, be forewarned that Val Thorens seems to be one of the more treacherous slopes in France. Alexander says there are, "lots of stones," which is probably why Louise said, "dangerous flats...gotta be careful." Sounds like if you like danger and you're looking for a rush then maybe Val Thorens is the place to go, but if you like to ski safe then maybe you should check out one of the other awesome slopes mentioned here.

Whatever your experience or thrill-seeking level may be, France offers something for everyone. If you've been, plan to go, or just want to talk up your favorite slopes, remember to visit LivingSocial: Slopes and share your thoughts!

Last time you got your LivingSocial: Slopes update, we had some recommendations for skiing down south of the equator. Hopefully these were some pretty good picks, but with all the work we do to keep LivingSocial up and running we don't really have time to run around and ski all the mountains we want to. That's why we need your help; we want you to let us know the best places to ski during June, July, and August, so we know which mountains to be dreaming of while we sweat like crazy up here.

For those of you sweatin' through summer months like we are, here are a few suggestions for places to cool off while getting your ski on. One place that sounds pretty great and will get you out of the sweltering heat if you're in the area is Ski Dubai. How the heck do you ski in Dubai, you ask? Well the whole mountain, even though it's only got 5 full runs, is completely indoors.; which means indoor skiing that lasts all year around, irrespective of insanely high temperatures outside. If you ask us, that is pretty awesome.

Can't make it to Dubai? Not to worry, as there are indoor ski locations popping up all around the world. You've got SnowDome Bispingen in Germany, Tamworth Snowdome in the UK, Meadowlands Xanadu in the United States (coming soon), and more. The experience may not be the same as tearing through the fresh powder during the winter months, but these indoor mountains will help hold you over until the real snow returns.

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.

From a glowing review of a favorite book to a panning of a failed blockbuster, we know that reviews come in all flavors. Our goal at LivingSocial is to provide a forum for useful, meaningful reviews written by passionate people. Sometimes certain reviews are simply, well, “super” — and with that in mind we’ve introduced the new Super Review feature.

On any “thing’s” page (think video game, book, tv show, etc.) next to the review box is the new Super Review counter. As you write your review the counter measures your total word count, and once you hit 150 words your review is marked as super.

Our goal with this feature is to promote thoughtful reviews. We recognize that length isn’t always an indicator of quality, so don’t forget that individual reviews can be marked as useful and review walls can be sorted by usefulness.

As with any new feature, please send us feedback on your thoughts on how we can improve.