Hurricane Sandy is affecting millions on the East Coast and it is also affecting Facebook which has now canceled their November 1st Gifts event in New York City. The social network sent out press invitations on October 19th.
This event was to take place at the World famous FAO Schwartz on Fifth Avenue. It is believed the event was going to be used to show off new Gifts features, particularly features to do with the introduction of physical gifts. Previously, Gifts allowed users to send just virtual goods.
Facebook was also rumored to be preparing to announce several new retail partners who will become a big part of the Gifts platform. Right now, the gifts selections are rather limited and more choices will be very beneficial to users and the general growth of the service.
Facebook officials have not announced a new date yet, but we’ll likely be hearing more shortly.
With the new product users will also see a notification in the sidebar that a friend’s birthday is coming up in the near future. From there, they can browse physical gifts and shortly after purchasing one, the recipient will receive a notification and be able to change sizes or flavors if needed. The recipient will also be able to confirm the proper shipping address to avoid shipping errors on the part of the sender.
Finding out about a present kind of ruins the surprise, however, it’s probably a good idea that Facebook makes sure they’re sending gifts to the right address, otherwise that could ruin the process completely.
