Gift Giving on Facebook Gets Real

I sent my ex-girlfriend roses on Facebook. Not a photo or some cartoonish image of roses — these were the real deal, complete with glass vase, petals and thorny connotations. The whole thing cost precisely 534 Facebook credits — or $53.40 — and took me about 30 seconds. No shopping cart, no checkout. I didn't even need to input her shipping address, which is good, since she won't tell me where she lives.

I'm part of the generation that thinks privacy is passé. Send me a friend request? We're friends now. Poke my profile? I'll poke yours back. But using your profile to send you real things I have to pay for with Facebook's alternative currency? That might be the biggest leap of faith yet. (See the top 10 Facebook stories of 2009.)

In August the social-networking giant started rolling out the ability to send real-life gifts by going to the same digital wall on which a member would jot a note to a friend. (First-time users have to input credit- or debit-card info to obtain Facebook credits. Think of them as Chuck E. Cheese tokens for a digital generation.) Once the purchase is complete, the recipient gets a notification on her wall to show off to all her friends, and if she provides her address to the third-party vendor, the gift shows up on her doorstep a few days later.

Giving gifts on Facebook is nothing new: since 2007, analysts estimate that users have spent more than $50 million to send virtual presents that are basically online stickers to put on profile pages. Facebook has developed its own currency, worth 10¢ per unit, and plans to take a cut as people on the site start buying everything from online games to off-line gifts for every possible occasion. (See five Facebook no-nos for divorcing couples.)

The expansion into tangible goods was the brainchild of RealGifts, a start-up that three Web developers launched with a $25,000 grant from Facebook. It has partnered with vendors to offer such things as flowers, hams and Slankets (sorry, Snuggies), and there's a broader array in the pipeline. RealGifts co-founder Tommy Sanguinetti touts the convenience factor: the entire shopping experience is contained on Facebook. Quick and easy. "People who get it love it," he says.

To test out the new feature, I ordered bouquets for three of the most challenging targets I could think of: my mom (who I predicted wouldn't know how to accept it), my ex-girlfriend (who I predicted wouldn't want it) and — since Sanguinetti mentioned that people have used the service to reach out to celebrities — country-music star Taylor Swift (because, well, one can only hope).

The results? My mom, still a Facebook neophyte, accepted her arrangement almost immediately, although I soon destroyed any goodwill by telling her I thought her flowers would have sat wilting in a warehouse for several months before she figured out how to get them. (She replied, "Why do you think I'm not intelligent enough to figure this out, Dan? That's a bit disconcerting.") Sorry, Mom.

The reaction from my ex was worse. She managed to delete the notification from her Facebook wall in — I timed this — less than a minute. She told me later, amid much profanity, that there was "No way" she'd have the flowers delivered, because she didn't want to explain they were from her "weirdo ex-boyfriend." RealGifts assures me refunds are possible.

And what about Ms. Swift? I managed to track down what (I think) is her actual Facebook profile and requested to add her as a friend. She has yet to accept, and therein lies the rub: without a friend connection, there's no way to send a gift. So we should totally be Facebook friends, Taylor. I guarantee there will be some flowers in it for you. Or a ham. Take your pick.

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