Facebook Experiments With 'Want' and 'Collect' Buttons

Oct. 9. 2012 — -- Do you like Facebook's "Like" buttons? People use them for all sorts of reasons -- there's even an experiment in which you can click on it to send hugs -- but Facebook, in the meantime, is experimenting with a few variations.

Facebook is testing new "want" and "collect" buttons for its new "Collections" feature. The new buttons, which only appear so far on a few select pages, allow users to create "wish lists" of the stuff they, well, wish for. The wish list is a gallery of sorts of all the items you've collected or wanted.

The feature is live now on such pages as Pottery Barn's. I was able to hit the "collect" button there on a Hadley Ruched Duvet and add it to my "For the Home" wish list. Facebook is testing the Collections feature with Fab.com, Michael Kors, Victoria's Secret, Wayfair.com, and others. If you are a fan of any of those retailers the collections might appear in your News Feed.

Collections is Facebook's second experiment in the last two weeks as it tries out a move into the e-commerce space. Last week Facebook released Gifts, which allows you to buy items for friends directly through the site.

With Collections you don't actually buy the items on Facebook.com, but you do show your interest.

"Collections can be discovered in News Feed, and people will be able to engage with these collections and share things they are interested in with their friends. People can click through and buy these items off of Facebook," Facebook said in a statement.

There is a "buy" link directly under products you add to your wish lists, but Facebook told ABC News that it is not profiting directly from this feature and doesn't have plans to. The new buttons won't be available across the Web the way the Like button currently is either.

Last week Facebook announced that it had over one billion active users on the site for the first time.