It's been a good morning for me. My morning coffee was strong, traffic wasn't too bad, and to top it all off I just read the news that Facebook is getting rid of Facebook Gifts.
I won't bash Facebook Gifts too much, but personally, I was never a fan of them. I did give and receive a few of them (provided they were free), but grew tired of them fast. My main problem with them was that I could never figure out how to hide them, so I would always have awkward gifts from ex-girlfriends on my profile.
However, personal venting aside, Facebook Gifts seemed to be a lucrative business. Facebook even projected it to grow by $35 million a year back in 2008. This begs the question as to why Facebook would kill off such a profitable business.
The reason for this Facebook failure is actually Facebook's success. That $35-million-per-year projection was before the rise of Farmville and the start of Facebook Credits. Services like those were obviously taking away from the Gifts, so Facebook is just refocusing on where the money is.
You can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs. In this case, the Farmville/Credit omelet required the cracking of the Gift egg, and personally I think that egg was a little rotten anyway.
