Social Shopping with eBay

A few weeks ago CrankApps helped eBay launch a very cool new social shopping application. The application name is "Gift-it" and it helps you find really good gifts for people that you know. The application is a great step forward for social search and social shopping, and provides a unique user experience. With over 90,000 monthly users in the first 2 weeks it seems to be getting great traction.

It works something like this:

First, you pick a friend.



We used Facebook to make it really easy. For example, I chose my friend Manu. After selecting a friend, the application will automatically search through their profile for what they might like based on information stored in their profile.



From the example, I see that Manu likes Football, Soccer, Technology, and a list of other things. At that point I can select from a list of interests that might be suitable matches.



Then, as any good search engine does, it provides me a list of results from eBay to find the best possible match. I think Manu will like the football tickets.



Now, granted, this is only in the earliest phase of social search, but it is clear that the possibilities for shopping are very large. I think that they are really on to something.

See for yourself.