Facebook says 'so long' to the virtual gift shop starting August 1

For those of you who would spend your hard-earned cash to buy virtual birthday cakes, flowers and teddy bears on Facebook's virtual gift shop -- this news might come as a surprise. Last night, Facebook announced that it will be closing its virtual gift shop permanently starting August 1, so the staff can "focus on improving other products ... such as Photos, News Feed, Inbox, games, comments, the 'Like' button and the Wall."

The gifts that have already been sent or received will still be visible on your Facebook Wall and items will still be on display on your gifts page. Third-party gifting applications will still allow you to send a virtual wish, such as RockYou's popular Birthday Cards App, the Hallmark Social Calendar and -- my personal favorite -- the irreverent someecards.

Love 'em or hate 'em, the virtual gifts on Facebook can be credited with the success of Facebook Credits, which is quickly becoming the de facto currency for social games, and it also showed that Facebook users were willing to part with few real-life dollars to purchase virtual goods, making it possible for freemium games, e.g. FarmVille, to exist and reach critical mass.

The Facebook gift store closing, on the other hand, serves as a reminder that while you -- the consumer -- open your wallets to buy virtual goods on Facebook, in social games, that this investment won't necessarily stick around for the long term. That's something I'll certainly think about the next time I'm tempted to use my credit card to buy a 'limited edition' whatever in the dozen or so social games on my daily radar.

Social Gaming News Digest for the week ending Aug. 13, 2010

Things happen so fast in the social gaming space these days, it can be hard to keep up. For those who need a little help, here's a quick recap of some of the biggest social gaming news that happened this week:

    Google supposedly spent $75 million on virtual currency platform Social Gold, further feeding rumors of the company's social gaming plans. Analyst Colin Sebastian has some interesting ideas about what such plans would mean for the rest of Google.
    Disney Boss (and new Playdom owner) Bob Iger got positively giddy at social gaming's prospects on a conference call.
    Farmville disappeared from MSN Games, likely due to poor traction from users there.
    We didn't get Madden on Facebook, but we did get an announcement for Gasworks' Title Town Football, targeted for next month.
    eMarketer reported that social games advertising will be a $220 million market this year. Still only 20% of social gaming revenues, though.
    The biggest social network in the world's biggest country announced it had gotten bigger, thanks in part to games.
    Golden Nugget became the first real-world casino with a Facebook game.
    Square Enix continued its Japanese social gaming push with a freemium RPG.
    OMGPOP signed on to integrate their games into myYearbook's social network.
    Playdom explains why they're trying to get a foothold in the European market while the getting is good.
    Rixty offered bonus Facebook Credits for your loose change.
    Zynga offered Petville and Treasure Island cash at 7-Eleven.
    HeyZap offered HTML5 support in addition to Flash.