Facebook goes in for social gifting

Facebook is set to roll out a social gifting service, which allows you to send real, yes real, gifts to people over the social network.

All you have to do is choose a gift, attach a card and send. According to Facebook, you can post your gift to your friend’s timeline or send it privately. They can then unwrap a preview of the gift and it will show up on their doorstep a few days later, even if you don’t know their address.

Okay, that’s not actually as scary as it seems. Once you’ve given the gift, the receiver gets a notification asking them to put in their details.

It also looks like Facebook’s trying to take a little bit of the anxiety out of gifting. The social network will allow the people receiving the gift to choose “the colour, size or flavour that they want, or even exchange it for something else of equal value”.

The service is rolling out in the US first, with plans to gradually introduce it to the rest of the world.

Social gifting is a growing phenomenon, and it seems that Facebook been actively pursuing startups in the space for some time now. According to Director of Product Blake Ross, the company was able to roll out Facebook Gifts after bringing in virtual gifting service Karma four months ago.