Facebook Rolls Out New Gift Giving Service On Your Friends' Timelines Today

Facebook rolled out a new feature today that just kind of started appearing on friends' Facebook Walls today. This feature I believe is called "Facebook Gifts" and you pretty much can't help but notice it. Simply go to a friend's wall and you'll see where you can post a message, a photo, or now, wallah, now give them a gift!

So from there all you do is click the "Gift" icon to see what type of choices you have to give. You'll find everything from $5 Starbucks gift cards to flowers, candy, beef jerky, Star Wars USB storage devices, cupcakes, to, well, you name it! They have "recommended gifts" to help you out.

You choose a gift and the next screen gives you additional information about the selection.

The following screen allows you to select a card to accompany the gift. Choose the occasion (birthday, anniversary, etc.).

Then customize the card. In the next screen you decide whether to post the gift on your friend's Timeline or not. After your friend "opens" the wrapped gift on their timeline (or otherwise), they will be asked to provide shipping information (when applicable) and you will be asked to pay. Kind of interesting actually that you don't pay until they actually "open" the present on their Wall.

Here's a preview of how it looks on their wall (recipient's name removed to protect the innocent from false expectation of receiving a gift from a cheapskate like me).

This is actually pretty clever. What better venue to provide a quick and easy way of giving a gift to a friend than in Facebook! I believe this is Facebook's first mainstream foray into the eCommerce world. Given how ubiqutious Facebook birthday messages are, this could really become huge!

This rollout applies so far only to individuals in Facebook and not to Facebook Pages, such as the Conejo Valley Guide Facebook Page at facebook.com/ConejoValleyGuide (hint, hint, follow us there for fun daily tidbits). However, feel free to friend me at facebook.com/ConejoJoe if you happen to be in the mood to test this new Facebook Gifts service (hint, hint, again).

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[Conejo Joe]

Follow-up: As of 4:45pm west coast time this feature has not graced the presence of all Facebook accounts en masse.