Facebook Gifts: Pushing the Limits of Rationality

Yesterday I spoke with Bill Snow at BuyMyAffection. Bill thought I was really upset with him, and we proceeded to hash out the details and talk in more detail how his service operates and the vale to dating sites and singles.

Men buying stuff for women to win or keep their affection is a big part of our economy. I just don’t like the idea of men buying women gifts on dating sites before they have even met.

A simple distinction that seems to have been overlooked during the initial brouhaha.

I can see free dating sites offering the service, but currently, the integration process is klunky and not well described on the site. Consider that the service has only been around a few months and they haven’t spent much time on making the integration as smooth as say Userplane.

Speaking of gifting, Fred Stutzman has written about Facebook introducing gifts, a cute little feature that enables you to sends “giftsâ€? to a fellow Facebook friend. The gifts are little icons, and the sending of a gift is broadcast to the friend’s network via feed.

Good info on the strategy behind the move, how they are copying existing features and how the motivations for gifting on Facebook differs from buying yourself a new shirt in SecondLife. Surprised that Fred didn’t mentioned Myspace’s gifting and begging feature on Helio mobile phones.

Fred is one of the smartest minds writing about social networking. I enjoy his stuff on a different level than the usual product launch and brief reviews on TechCrunch or Mashable (is there any difference?). Much more insightful and thought provoking. I’d rather link to Fred than try to replicate his awesomeness.