It isn't like Siskel and Ebert or Facebook created the concept of raising or lowering a thumb to indicate one's approval or distaste, respectively, of something (Although Siskel and Ebert did trademark it.)
But word is coming out from Business Week that a revamped version of Groupon's page, currently being tested by a small portion of users, has "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" buttons for the 33 million Grouponites to indicate whether they're interested in a particular deal or not. And what website does that remind you of?
Yes. Facebook. This makes me wonder if the new site will be taking on a more social media-flavored slant, and if the whole Clicky Facebook game-thing was the daily deal site's way of peeking under the hood of developing for social media for use in its own new site. Any of the smaller companies Groupon has scooped up this year alone could telegraph some of the new site's direction, but until the curtain is raised, it'd all be wildly speculative.
Speaking of the talent-acquiring spree Groupon's been on, Business Insider has a great Q&A with Carlos Whitt, the cofounder of Adku, a company that Andrew Mason's company recently scooped up. The interview's a nice look at the other side of the fence -- what it's like when Groupon acquires your startup. Give that a read here.
Meanwhile, Thai tech blog Thumbs Up has discovered that Thailand now has its own Groupon. There are no deals on the page yet. Then again, this isn't really a shock, because we reported back in December that Groupon would likely be opening a Thai outpost in 2012. Check the calendar and, yup, it's 2012 and Groupon is coming to Thailand.
Finally, after climbing towards the mid-twenties last week, Groupon's stock is currently at $21.03.
David Wolinsky is a freelance writer and a lifelong Chicagoan. In addition to currently serving as an interviewer-writer for Adult Swim, he's also a columnist for EGM. He was the Chicago city editor for The Onion A.V. Club where he provided in-depth daily coverage of this city's bustling arts/entertainment scene for half a decade. When not playing video games for work he's thinking of dashing out to Chicago Diner, Pizano's, or Yummy Yummy. His first career aspirations were to be a game-show host.
