It’s only September, but Facebook is already getting into the gift-giving spirit with a new feature that lets you send physical items such as cupcakes, gift cards, stuffed animals, and magazine subscriptions to your Facebook friends. The new feature, dubbed Facebook Gifts, recently started rolling out to profiles and is available only in the U.S. for now.
This is the second time Facebook has launched a Gifts feature, but it’s the first time the social network is getting involved in sending physical items. The previous iteration of Facebook Gifts let you send virtual tokens such as digital birthday cakes, mugs, balloons, and team jerseys that friends could display on their profiles.
Third parties have also sold gifts via the social network including RealGifts, American Greetings, and Lala.com (before the Apple acquisition). Some retailers, including Walmart, have also offered Facebook apps that help you come up with gift-giving ideas based on data mined from your friends’ Facebook profiles.How Facebook Gifts Work
Let’s say that Bob is missing his girlfriend Sally ever since she left Ohio to attend college at UCLA, and Bob wants to send her a small token.
Read also:
Last-minute giving made easier with Facebook Gifts (CNN International)
Facebook Gifts could encourage users to expose more private information (Computerworld)
Facebook adds feature to let users buy and send gifts (Chicago Tribune)
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