Daily deals fatigue is here. Google Offers launched an Android app. LivingSocial has a mobile app, and Groupon's Groupon Now seeks to rope in casual city browsers who are looking for deals on the fly. Amazon's daily deals site, Amazon Local, launched this past August. These sites are trying to take a bite out of the hyperlocal market.

Flash sales sites like Gilt.com, EBay's Daily Deals and Amazon's Woot.com offer deals on specific pieces of merchandise.

DailyDeals.com isn't mobile or even tablet-focused. It is wholly online and social commerce-focused, hoping that consumers will purchase a deal, and share it with their Facebook friends, Twitter followers and other social media buddies.

Wednesday's deal was $20 for $50 worth of custom folded greeting cards at Zazzle.com.

In October, Facebook began integrating with EBay in yet another attempt to bring social commerce to fruition. Facebook's Director of Platform and Mobile Marketing, Katie Mitic, claimed that shopping was "inherently social." Schaffer agrees, "I watch how my wife and friends shop, and it's all about referrals from friends." That may be true offline, sure, but online?

DailyDeals.com seems like another accidental conflation of the social graph ("this is who I know") and the interest graph ("this is what I like"). The social web is still evolving, and for now it's better to pick one or the other. That's exactly what DailyDeals.com is not doing. 

The Web has of course always had an impact on shopping, from the dot.com flame and burns (Boo.com anyone?) to e-commerce success stories like Amazon.com and eBay. So what's new in 2010?

Daily Deals

One of the biggest success stories of 2010 has been daily deals provider Groupon. In October we interviewed Groupon CTO Ken Pelletier to find out why Groupon has been growing so fast. He told us that Groupon's growth has had "a really strong word of mouth element" to it.

Why has social software caught on with shopping? Pelletier explained that "people like to share a deal with friends for a variety of reasons. Maybe to help them save money, or maybe they want to plan to do something together. Or for a lot of social reasons." Groupon receives a "high level of social sharing", he said, and the service gets a lot of activity on Twitter and Facebook.

Groupon isn't the only game in town for daily deals - we mentioned some of its competitors in September.

Real-Time Social Shopping

In June, Amazon bought online auction phenomenon Woot. At the time our own Marshall Kirkpatrick called the deal "a marriage of light- and heavy-weight supply chains," but also noted that Woot is bringing real-time social shopping to Amazon.

Woot's core service is to offer one highly discounted item for sale each day, until either time or inventory runs out. The items are of variable quality, but are often just good enough to buy.

Location Check-ins

Location has been a big trend this year and it affected the shopping sector too (indeed, some would say that the future of location apps is shopping). A good example was American Express and Federated Media announcing in August a free iPhone app, called Social Currency, built on the Foursquare platform. [disclosure: Federated Media sells advertising for ReadWriteWeb]

The app lets users track things they want to buy, upload photos of purchases, and comment on what their friends do - all the while pushing the updates to Twitter and Foursquare.

Facebook Shopping

This year Facebook has made huge bounds forward as a business and it has touched many sectors: including shopping. In June, Amazon added connectivity to Facebook in order to provide product suggestions based on likes and favorites pulled from your social graph.

By connecting your account, you allow Amazon to scrape the interests and favorites of your friends. You can then view suggested gift ideas based on this data. Amazon also will populate lists of items that are popular among all of your friends, as well as suggestions based on your own interests.

Bar Code Scanning

Another trend to ramp up in 2010 was scanning barcodes using your smartphone. While technically this isn't "social shopping," it's an enabler of much better information for consumers - which is inevitably shared to the wider Web.

There are a variety of mobile apps that enable bar code scanning and eBay bought one of them in June: Red Laser. Amazon also got into the barcode scanning game in 2010, with Amazon Mobile. Red Laser was one of the first iPhone applications to become popular with barcode scanning early adopters. The app allows customers to use their phone to scan barcodes of products on store shelves, in order to receive price comparisons from a database of merchants.

Barcode scanning is a rapidly growing market. According to data from industry leader ScanLife, the use of barcode scanners is up 700% in 2010. Other products in this market include Best Buy-funded Tecca and Google's image recognition service Google Goggles.

So overall, 2010 has been a busy year for social technologies in the retail sector. Tell us some of your favorite moments this year in social shopping, or the apps you've come to rely on to help with your shopping.

With thanks to the coverage and analysis of Sarah Perez, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Adrienne Jeffries and Chris Cameron.

So we'd like to know which social shopping products you used or liked the best in 2010. There are 12 options below. If one of your favorites is not listed, then select 'Other' and mention it in the comments. You may choose up to 3 options.

Like the popular Internet retailer Woot (just bought by Amazon), the app provides deeply discounted items, available in limited quantities for a limited time. At 12 p.m. Eastern (GMT - 4:00) every day, a new deal is posted to the mobile app, offering "door-buster" type savings of 50% or more on brand-name products from a network of over 28,000 merchants.

Some of the past "OO's" (overwhelming offers), as they're called, have included deals like $100 off flights booked via Priceline.com, $50 off anything at TigerDirect.com, $25 off Target merchandise, $100 off Wal-Mart merchandise, $75 off the Barnes & Noble eBook Reader, $50 off digital cameras at Staples, $100 off a Nintendo Wii from Kmart and much more.

How to Play... err... Shop

There's a game-like element to scoring these deals, too. They launch at a given time and sell out fast - sometimes even in seconds, so you have to be quick to win the chance to purchase these items. To get a heads up about what deal is launching when, shoppers can sign up for email alerts that are sent out several hours prior to the OO start time and detail pricing, quantities available and other descriptive info about the product.

And if you're worried that you still might find a better deal by shopping around online, the app has you covered here, too. Instead of purchasing the item immediately from your mobile, you simply "reserve" the item. Of course, to do so, you have to link a MasterCard credit, debit or prepaid card to your account first. You then have up to three days to redeem your reservation.

One important item to note, and a big difference between Woot and this app, is that the discounts you receive are not immediate. Instead, they're provided to you as rebates posted to your MasterCard account. You will actually have to buy the item at full price then wait, usually around two weeks, before the credit is posted. At most, according to the FAQ, this process may take up to 21 days.

MasterCard and M-Commerce

MasterCard seems intent on tapping into the growing m-commerce trend, potentially a $2.2 billion dollar industry by the end of this year according to ABI Research. The Marketplace app is just one of many the company has launched for the device in recent months. It also has MoneySend, a person-to-person mobile payments application, Easy Savings Program, an app that locates nearby discounts from participating merchants, Priceless Picks, an app that lets shoppers share great deals with each other anywhere around the world and an ATM finder application. Unfortunately for Android users, the only app MasterCard has ported to that platform is its one-off app, "Flavours of Shanghai 2010," designed specifically for EXPO 2010.

Woot is bringing real-time social shopping to Amazon. We pinged ReadWriteWeb reader Michael Vorel, the CEO of commerce, Internet marketing and consulting company Vastplanet for a brief comment, and he argued that this was a competitive move against the coming media convergence that will pit Amazon against TV shopping networks.

"It's an excellent move by Amazon. Amazon needed something that was real-time shopping, in the sense of a QVC or HSN [Home Shopping Network]. It gives Amazon the opportunity to tie together with existing retailers into a daily special. With the infrastructure and connections Amazon has, it could tap into these two communities to offer better pricing and a more successful operation.

Compete says Woot got 2.2 million unique visitors in May. Facebook referred 10.5% of that traffic, so it extends far out into social media."

"The emergence of social shopping is evident in Woot, very similar to the special of the day on HSN. Amazon is looking for unique properties that fit the social shopping model that they can bring under their umbrella.

"Compete says Woot got 2.2 million unique visitors in May. Facebook referred 10.5% of that traffic, so it extends far out into social media.

"I think what we're going to see from Woot is, we'll see more interesting products roll through and maybe a hint of more categories per day. You could have a channel where you had it by category, Mens items, Women's items, etc. That would allow a lot more people to play within Woot and a lot more money to be made.

"The products they [Woot] are selling are so slim margin, they needed to look at other ways to make money. Someone like Amazon could look at behavioral learning techniques, they could learn how to serve those people. I think it's very interesting that both Zappos and Woot were big social media ecommerce companies and both were acquisitions."

That sounds like a pretty smart take on the deal to me. Woot says it will maintain its functional independence, but there's got to be some cultural cross-pollination in the plans. As media convergence brings Amazon into direct competition with at-home TV shopping, what better way to gear up than with one of the new geniuses of real-time social shopping, Woot?

Woot's core service is to offer one highly discounted item for sale each day, until either time or inventory runs out. The items are of variable quality, but are often just good enough to buy, and the whole experience is a lot of fun. It's an unsurprising acquisition by Amazon, but could have an impact on the larger company.
Update: Read this analysis from an ecommerce perspective - Woot + Amazon = Real-Time Social Shopping

If you thought Zappos was a gonzo company acquired by Amazon, Woot probably takes the cake. It's a testimony to the fact that you don't have to be a buttoned-up wonk to succeed online (though we probably all knew that already, right?).

Supply Chain Speed-Up

As we wrote about the Zappos acquisition 11 months ago, Amazon has mastered the art of the scalable supply chain and is in a strong position to drop the costs of any business it acquires substantially.

As we wrote last year:

Lora Cecere, VP of value chain services at AMR Research, says she agrees with Busch. "It's now a multi channel play," she told us. "Zappos deals with quick cycles, Amazon has longer cycles and is warehouse centric. They are really dealing with different supply chains. I wonder if it wasn't a preemptive move to block another competitor from acquiring Zappos."

Much of the same could be said about Woot. It will likely compliment the Zappos team and philosophy and help make Amazon all the more agile. Woot said today that it would operate independently, but it's also safe to assume that the culture of Woot will have an impact on the culture of Amazon. It could even make the mega-retailer a little more fun.

What makes this an ingenious member engagement tool for Digg, is that sub-par articles with a high number of comments are likely to incite action. In the past, many of us simply ignored the sensationalist stories that plagued the lower echelons of Diggdom. Nevertheless, with trolls being a driving force in the determination of trends, users will find themselves clicking through simply to right the wrongs in the Digg universe. While real-time shopping notifications like Woot's Twitter account incentivize users with deals, Digg knows that its members will keep coming back to maintain a sense of justice. The company will be rolling out the trends feature in the near future.

The daily deals section is by far the most interesting feature as users can check for deals in the verticals of their choice and be redirected to daily sale sites like Smart Bargains and Woot via Sellout.Woot. In this case, Yahoo finally gets a chance to really showcase their 2007 Woot partnership in a shopping experience that isn't a maze of click-thrus. For those readers who are already following Woot on Twitter, you may want to also follow Yahoo Deals and increase your chances of scoring cheap computer equipment or stereo gear.

As for the coupons section, if Yahoo Deals gains real momentum, coupon clippers might be found abusing office supplies (namely toner cartridges and paper) across the country. One great way to combat the waste of old school coupon clipping would be for Yahoo to offer a mobile version complete with scannable bar codes. This way a deal finder could simply load up their mobile phone with the correct bar codes and cashiers could scan the jpegs.

Back in December, we noticed that a new developer had begun working on the MySocial24x7 extension, albeit unofficially, when he posted a note on his blog. The developer, one Dave Hodson, was once the CTO of a company called MessageCast which was acquired by Microsoft in 2005. He now works on the Windows Live RSS team, according to his bio.

Hodson had posted on his blog about how he updated MySocial24x7 so it would work with the latest version of Firefox 3. He had also fixed a few bugs including issues with Twitter authorization and posting to FriendFeed. At the time of the post, Hodson said that he emailed Sandosh for permission to continue work on the add-on and to see if Sandosh would be interested in hosting the new version on his domain.

Fast-forward to a couple of months later, and we finally have an update on where this project is going: Hodson has officially taken over the development of this extension. With permission from Sandosh (who is apparently now working on a gDocs sidebar instead), Hodson will take responsibility for the maintenance and new features of the MySocial24x7 add-on. He submitted the updated extension to Mozilla and it's currently available for download from here on addons.mozilla.org.

About MySocial 24x7

If you never gave the add-on a spin the first time around, you should check it out. Essentially, it functions the same as it did before - MySocial24x7 sits in the Firefox sidebar giving you quick access to your FriendFeed stream. Buttons at the top let you quickly switch from the "Everyone" stream to your friends' stream or even to your own. You can both "like" and comment on the items posted, view comments from others, or share items of your own.

A scrollable row of icons lets you filter the streams by service - a feature which is especially handy if you like using FriendFeed as a Twitter client. You can also filter the view by selecting just one of your friends from the drop-down list provided. Sadly, there's no option to filter by lists or rooms.

Although functional, it looks like there are still some kinks to work out with the new version. The sidebar doesn't always close when hitting the "X" and there seems to be no way to disable the pop-ups that appear (and occasionally remain) outside of the sidebar. Also, the one feature which we really wanted - an auto-refresh - is nowhere to be seen. Refreshes still have to be done manually by pressing a button at the bottom.

Still, for those with limited desktop real estate, MySocial24x7 is a decent way to keep an eye on FriendFeed throughout the day without having to visit the web site. Now that the extension works again, we hope to see some improvements, such as the ones we've noted here, added to it soon.

First, it scrolls. To the left. Of that much we are sure. All sorts of news articles, pictures, stories, reviews, and other informational items appear in two rows. As you move your mouse over each item, you can choose to read more, close, strike, or star it. Or let it float on by. Anyway, if you do click on the item, a new window will open giving you a larger preview. Closing an item does just that. Clicking on the star icon will save the item for your own feed and finally, striking an item will make it (and stuff like it) go away.

Here's where the recommendation system comes in. Starring stuff promotes similar content, so you end up seeing more of it in your stream. Striking things makes them go away, and also makes them less likely to appear again. After a while, you are seeing more and more of the stuff you like. It's that simple.

Atype Studios also added a bit of social goodness to the app, not only building a feed of stuff you have starred, but also allowing you to share particular items with other Ohpan users and eventually, via email and other social networks. And they aren't stopping there - itechmo reports that plans are afoot to include your own content (if it isn't being picked up already), add your Google Reader shared items and even rate inline ads!

Oh yeah - we also promised you some access codes! Here's what to do. Go to the Ohpan site, click on the button called I have a code! and put in this code: RWWROCKS.

The man behind Atype, Simon Plashkes (@plashkes), gave us a roll of 1000 tickets, so first come, first serve!

Now, a new discount site has taken the Woot model and made it decidedly earth-friendly. So you'll be saving green - while being green. Meet EcoSteal.

And while the products are fleeting, EcoSteal asserts that being socially conscious about purchases isn't: "Being green is not a fad. It is not trendy. It is a new way of life that we all must live by and embrace." One thing is for sure: saving money and doing something good for the planet is a combination that's going to attract a number of fans.

EcoSteal users have the option of buying up to three of the available product. In addition to the discounted price, they'll be charged for shipping. (Unfortunately for our non-US readers, EcoSteal is currently only shipping to the United States.) All purchases are final, unless there is a defect or error on EcoSteal's part.

To see what eco-friendly deal you can snag today, head over to EcoSteal. Or if you want to be in the know on the latest green offerings, register for the EcoSteal alert service.

WootWatch (iTunes), the first Woot application to make it to the iPhone, isn't the best app for the job. Quite frankly, all it does is present you with the latest woot deal with its pricing information and a link to the woot website for more information. Unfortunately, this application does not provide the latest deals from Woot Shirt nor Woot Wine. We honestly don't see the point in downloading this application for Woot. You're better off bookmarking the website to get all that you would need for making a decision on whether or not to snag the latest deal from Woot.

Woot! Review

Woot! (iTunes) on the other hand does a much better job at helping you keep up with the latest Woot deals. You can monitor not only the Woot site, but also Woot Shirt and Woot Wine. Where you would normally have to refresh the app in order to see any new updates with WootWatch, Woot! allows you to set auto-refresh intervals ranging from 1 minute to every hour. Woot! also allows you to to see the description of the latest deal right inside the reader including whether or not the latest item is in "Woot off!" mode, meaning it's almost sold out. There's even an option for your phone to vibrate and auto refresh when an item is in Woot-Off mode.

So Which One Should I Use?!

The answer to that question depends entirely upon your preference and budget. Currently, WootWatch is available in the iTunes App Store for free, while Woot! will cost you a $0.99. If you can afford to pay for Woot! we wholeheartedly advise you to do so. However, if you really don't need all the extra features and just want to know what the latest deal is, save your pretty pennies and grab WootWatch.