In a new social recommendation beta from Amazon and Facebook, when Amazon users click on the recommendations link from their Amazon home page, they can opt to connect the social network with Amazon to enhance the shopping experience.
It's just a small button on Amazon users' recommendation Web pages, but the
e-commerce giant's integration with Facebook Connect could light the torch for
a major social shopping shift.
Beginning this week, when Amazon users click on the recommendations link
from their Amazon home page, they see a new beta window on the right of the
screen that invites them to "Tap into Your Facebook Network."
The tagline says: "Connect to Facebook to get Amazon recommendations
for you and discover your friends' Favorites and Likes."
Users can click on the Sign in and Connect button, confirm their Amazon
credentials, and they will see the window shown on
Mashable here describing the service and asking them to
connect with Facebook.
The service warns users that it will share Facebook information about them
and their friends with Amazon, which creates a special Facebook recommendations
Web page when users agree to the terms.
Here are some of the benefits the companies tout for these social
recommendations:
- discovering Amazon recommendations for movies,
music, and more based on your Facebook Favorites and Likes;
- seeing upcoming birthdays and finding Amazon
Wish Lists for your friends on Facebook more easily;
- getting great gift suggestions for your friends
based on their Facebook Favorites and Likes; and
- exploring your friends' Favorites and seeing who
has similar interests.
Indeed, when
eWEEK signed in, we
saw notices about friends who have birthdays coming up, as well as some of
their likes and pages they are fans of on Facebook. The "likes"
include, predictably for Amazon, books, movies and music.
To do this, the connection allows Amazon to access a user's name, profile
picture, gender, networks, user ID, lists of friends, and any other information
users share with everyone on Facebook. The Website also accesses users' likes.
Amazon promises it will not share information from users' accounts or purchase
history with Facebook. Amazon will also not attempt to contact Facebook friends
or post anything to users' Facebook walls without their consent.
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