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Location-based media company JiWire reports seeing increases in the sharing of and the demand for local deals, like those offered by Groupon, LivingSocial and others, since last quarter. According to data from a recent survey, sharing of deals has increased by 21% and demand is up 20% from Q1 2011.

In addition, only 8% never buy local deals, up from 28% who said they never buy them just a few months ago.

New from a company called Clever Sense is an app called Alfred (iTunes link) that provides personalized recommendations for restaurants, coffee shops, nightlife, bars and clubs, and soon, hotels, salons, spas, shops, attractions and more. The interesting thing about how the app does so is the technology it is uses behind the scenes. Instead of relying primarily on collaborative filtering, a technique found at sites like Netflix and Amazon ("people who like this also like that"), Alfred uses model-based learning, a type of artificial intelligence.

In Alfred's case, the app uses its smarts to understand the way that people talk about places, and then creates personalized interest graphs that grow and change with each action a user takes and each decision they make.

American Express' new digital payments and commerce platform Serve has just announced its first carrier deal since its launch in March of this year. The company's new partnership with U.S. operator Sprint will allow Serve's mobile wallet application to be made available in the Sprint Zone for customers using select Android phones.

The recently launched digital payment and commerce platform from American Express known as Serve has just announced a new partnership with Patch, AOL's big bet on hyperlocal news and content. Under the new partnership, Serve will power the Patch Deals platform, which will now offer Patch users deals and discounts, Groupon-style, with local merchants on the American Express network.

Location-based media company JiWire has released a new report detailing the mobile shopping trends among the "on-the-go" audience, which JiWire defines as people using tablets, smartphones or laptops away from their home or workplace. According to the study, 79% of these users are becoming more comfortable making purchases on their mobile devices, even for big ticket items over $1,000.

It also found that these consumers are heavily engaged with local deals services like Groupon and LivingSocial, for example, and had a high demand for tablet computers.

Disruptive discount provider Groupon and live events company Live Nation have teamed up to launch GrouponLive, a new site for ticketing deals. Live Nation Entertainment, formed by the combination of concert promoter Live Nation and ticket seller Ticketmaster, currently promotes over 20,000 shows per year. But with the economy's downturn, selling out a show is hard these days. The new venture, GrouponLive, will address that problem, not only by discounting seats, but also through the power of the Groupon brand, which brings the news of concerts and other events to Groupon's worldwide user base of millions. Many of these users represent new business for Live Nation, as they may not have heard of the events being promoted beforehand or they decide to buy a ticket at the last minute, but only due to a deal.

TeachStreet, the online community that helps lifelong learners find teachers and classes on almost any subject, is joining the "deals" space today, launching a new feature with both an online and (for now) a local Seattle deal.

This week's online deal: $59 for a 6 month access pass to Educator.com (normally $150). This week's local deal: $25 for a 3-class package at Arthur Murray Dance (normally $59). Share the deal with 3 friends who sign up, and yours is free.

"We should have done it a year ago," admits CEO and founder Dave Schappell. Perhaps. But the addition of deals to TeachStreet doesn't make sense simply because of the explosion of interest in the space. Instead, TeachStreet has spent the last year or so focused on building a vibrant community of teachers and learners. There are just under a half million classes listed on the site, offered by around 100,000 teachers and schools.

Facebook is testing a new feature that would let users check-in to their Facebook events. AllFacebook.com first caught wind of the feature today, noting that some iPhone users are now seeing the option to check-in to events they're attending.

A Facebook spokesperson says that "We're currently testing this and it will be available with the next iPhone release."

According to AllFacebook.com, the check-in option shows up only for items you've confirmed you'll be attending and only when you arrive within the event's geographic area.

Microsoft is joining the coupon craze popularized by sites like Groupon and LivingSocial with the launch of a new service called Bing Deals. The program is not an in-house creation built from scratch, but is being made available through a partnership between Microsoft and The Dealmap, a deal-tracking service that aggregates local deals, coupons and discounts from over 300 different sources and daily deal websites.

Bing Deals will work both on the desktop and mobile (via m.bing.com) and is also heavily integrated into Bing's search engine itself.

Facebook launched Facebook Deals in Europe today, the location-based checkin service that offers specials and discounts to users who login and register their location using Facebook on their mobile phones. The service, already live in the U.S. since last fall, is now offering deals with several European-based companies as well as with some global brands, like Starbucks and Mazda.