Amazon's Friends and Family Gifting feature is getting a little more social with the Tuesday launch of a tool that allows you to create and send group gift cards to your Facebook friends on their birthdays.

By connecting your Facebook and Amazon accounts, you can keep tabs on your friends' birthdays and prepare group gift cards in advance. To get started, head over to Amazon.com/birthdaygift, select a friend with an upcoming birthday and privately invite friends (via Facebook) to contribute to a gift card. Participants can contribute as little as $1 and as much as $25, and can also invite other friends to join, a spokesperson for Amazon told Mashable. The card, personalized with your message, is delivered to the recipient's Facebook wall on his or her birthday.

It's a well-executed concept. Soon, we imagine, Amazon will allow us to tap into friends' Amazon wish lists and send group gifts from there. Read more…

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Dads are notoriously hard to shop for, but Amazon aims to make the gift-giving choice easier this Father's Day by trimming the cost of its Kindle Fire HD tablet line.

From today until Saturday, June 8, Amazon is offering a $20 discount for its 7-inch Kindle Fire HD ($199), the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD ($269) and the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD with 4G LTE ($399). To access the deal, use the promotional code DADSFIRE at checkout.  Read more…

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Many are aware of Amazon's robust retail and web-hosting businesses, but less are familiar with its advertising business, which is rapidly becoming a significant player in the space.

Amazon brought in $450 million in advertising in revenue last year, according to eMarketer estimates published Tuesday. The company managed to increase its advertising business by nearly two-thirds between 2011 and 2012, and is expected to grow it by another half this year — to $660 million. This makes Amazon's ad business even bigger than Twitter's, which eMarketer previously estimated would generate $580 million this year. Read more…

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