Facebook Gifts: Too Much or Just Right?

This week Facebook rolled out a gift service to all users. Now, by clicking the red present icon on the Facebook pages of your friends and family, you can send them gifts in a wide variety of prices and categories. Gadgets, baked goods, housewares, digital gift cards or even wine (only available if you’re over 21) are available to send.

You can write a message on a digital card, and when you purchase a gift for a friend they get notified right away. The recipient inputs the address where the gift should be sent, and can even choose a different gift if they don’t like the one you picked for them – in the same price range, without your knowledge.

Now, just in time for the holidays, gifting is easy to do through Facebook. So easy that maybe some people won’t shop in local businesses anymore for the convenience of one-click gifting that recipients are guaranteed to like. Additionally, the businesses not on Facebook Gifts may suffer. If you want to participate in the program, you have to apply right now, so Facebook curates what’s in its service. And, according to a report on Tech Crunch, Facebook could earn up to $1 billion from the gifts.

This service appears to be perfect if you’re a last minute shopper or aren’t great at thinking of the right gifts. We prefer personalized shopping in stores (or online) when someone receives a gift before they can think about exchanging it.

What do you think?