Tout’d, the “Digital Word-of-Mouth” social media platform and referral engine that allows exclusive communities of friends to easily collect and share recommendations, has acquired TechStars portfolio company Villij and will adopt that name to more accurately reflect the benefits of the online community.

The company is introducing the new name along with a full website redesign that greatly enhances user experience. New features on Villij include a unique social search function capable of sourcing all content from the site, enhanced integration with Facebook and Gmail, higher-quality mobile web optimization, new notification frequency settings, as well as the addition of a graphical map representation of locally recommended businesses.

The new social search functionality allows Villij to deliver today what many other social media sites, including Facebook, are just beginning to investigate. For example, users can search a word or phrase and find who else on Villij has been asking questions or receiving recommendations on that term in any geography.

Villij was a 2007 TechStars company that matched people with similar interests and recommended individuals to one another based on the content those users had created on the Internet (e.g., blogs, social networking and bookmarking sites, etc.) The Villij strategy dovetails nicely with the social recommendation platform Tout’d has created, and integrating both brands under the Villij umbrella makes sense as the company expands to include more functionality.

“The acquisition of Villij allows us to provide our users with more functionality within the site and enhance the way they share experiences and insights with one another through our fully redesigned platform,” said Rob Morelli, co-founder. “We also believe the name Villij more accurately describes the experience of our users helping each other to discover what their friends already know and to explore their local communities like never before.”

The company is the brainchild of Wall Street veterans Rob Morelli and Saro Cutri and TechStars alum Arron Kallenberg. As a member of TechStars 2007 inaugural class, Kallenberg brings a unique perspective on social media start-ups.

About Villij (formerly Tout’d)

Villij is an easy-to-use social media platform that provides a forum for exchanging recommendations with friends. Founded in 2012 by Wall Street veterans and a TechStars graduate, Villij is a transformational company within the burgeoning New York tech scene. Villij connects you on a person-to-person level and offers a simplified way to get recommendations from the people that know you and your tastes best. It is this layer of social accountability that makes Villij recommendations more valuable and actionable than other review sites. For more information, please visit www.villij.com