Amazon Makes Your Boring Facebook Birthday Posts Worth Something

Posting a Facebook birthday greeting is the lowest level of well wishing. Now you can take the laziest birthday greeting and add something tangible, an Amazon gift card.
Image may contain Electronics Computer Hardware and Computer Hardware
Happy birthday.Photo: Alex Washburn/Wired

All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.

Facebook birthday greetings are the lowest level of well wishing. Or maybe they used to be. Now you can boost this laziest salutation with something that's not just tangible, but actually pretty solid: an Amazon gift card.

Amazon is hoping to capitalize on your inability to go to the store, buy a card, scribble your name in said card and drop it in a mailbox with a new, aptly named Amazon Birthday Gift. The feature scours your Facebook friends for upcoming birthdays. Pick a worthy friend and hook them up with an Amazon gift card in $1, $5, $10, and $25 denominations.

And if you can't afford a decent gift, you can always ask for help. The system allows mutual friends to pitch in with their own money-sealed birthday greetings. It's the virtual equivalent of passing a birthday card around the workplace and asking for cash. Except without the pressure of someone standing over your desk, judging how much you shove in the card.

Your well-wishing will appear on the birthday boy or girl's timeline on his or her special day, and he or she can use the money to buy whatever his or her heart desires, as long as Amazon sells it. Which is way better than the typical Facebook birthday post or that Ziggy card you were going to send.