virtual gifts

Facebook announced last night that its gift shop will close on August 1. After that date, you won't be able to give any Facebook gifts (free or purchased), but gifts that you've already received will still be available on your wall and on your gifts page. However, third party gift-giving applications like someecards will not be affected.

Facebook hasn't given its specific reasoning behind the decision, but says getting rid of gifts will allow them to "focus more on improving and enhancing products and features that people use every day." Most of you said you don't give virtual gifts, especially the type that you have to pay for with actual cash; perhaps lack of popularity is a big reason Facebook decided to pull the plug on this feature.

Fact: we all celebrate a ton of birthdays, baby showers, engagements —you name it — in our offices. So imagine how stressful it can be for the poor soul who is organizing all the gift-giving — trying to get everyone to pitch in while still keeping it all on the down low. Give your office "Angela" a break by sending her a link to From:Everyone, a site that lets you choose a gift from a wide variety of vendors, then send out email invites for co-workers (or family and friends) to participate. Kinda like GroupCard, but with monetary exchanges. This way, there's less chance for spoilers, you don't have to bug someone about pitching in, and you can just charge the amount you want to contribute to your card. Easy peasy.

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Missing the wedding of a faraway friend? Need a last-minute gift for someone across the country, but you don't have their mailing address? New site BoonSpace can help. The site allows you to create a personalized card or video message to send to the recipient via email and then buy a virtual gift (in place of a real product) to send along. Your recipient will get the card along with cash (sent via PayPal) to purchase the intended gift.

Their slogan is cute: "Presents, as if you were present." Since my close friends are scattered around the country, it's a great service to fall back on if I find myself needing something last minute. And yes, since you're not sending an actual object, there's a chance that your intended recipient won't spend the dollars on exactly what you intended, but I think that solves one of the toughest problems in gift-giving: making sure you give the recipient exactly what it is she's looking for.

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