Facebook Places is now available to BlackBerry users, a week after the social network’s location service made its debut on Android.

Specifically, Places is available as part of Facebook for BlackBerry 1.9, which is now available in the BlackBerry App World and will be issued as an update to existing users over the next 24 hours.

Here’s a rundown of the Facebook Places features that are now available to BlackBerry users:

• Check in to Facebook Places within a 1.25 mile radius of your location
• Select a Place from the available Nearby Places or add a Place if your location isn’t already in the database
• Tag friends upon checkin
• View the Places your friends have checked in
• “Like” or add comments to a checkin
• Checkins show up in the news feed
• Integrates with GPS and BB Maps

Just a few weeks ago, BlackBerry rolled out a fresh coat of paint on its Facebook () app, adding some new features like integrated search, better friends list views and an updated UI. Now that Facebook Places support is also built-in, the app more closely rivals those available for other mobile platforms.

In an attempt to capitalize on the rise of social commerce, online auction behemoth eBay launched its Group Gifts service today, enabling users to source the power of their social networks to collectively purchase gifts.

In the case of giving big gifts on a small budget, Group Gifts enables users to “share the love (and the expense) by buying a group gift with your friends.” Getting started is really simple — I completed the process of picking out a gift, inviting my friends to help and purchasing the gift in about 20 minutes. Granted, the gift I chose was quite inexpensive, and I was able to recruit friends from various networks quickly.

We spoke with Andy Palmer, manager of buyer experience for Group Gifts, to learn a bit more about the service.

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The Inspiration Behind Group Gifts

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With the growing importance of the social graph, and the booming group buying industry, it’s not a surprise that social commerce is one of the next steps towards integrating one’s social networking and buying experiences. We asked Palmer about eBay’s intentions for its newest service, and he indulged us by explaining eBay’s inspiration for and approach to developing Group Gifts:

“The inspiration came from a couple of places. First, eBay saw that people were using social websites to buy virtual gifts for their friends at a very high frequency. We thought that it made sense to take that to the next level and help people come together to buy actual gifts. Perhaps more importantly, eBay recognized that the process of group gifting as it exists in the world today can be difficult and frustrating at times, which is a shame because giving as a group is a wonderful way to give people bigger, better gifts without spending too much during these tougher economic times.

“eBay worked to create a product that would eliminate the major pain points of group gifting while leveraging unbeatable online assets to make the process even easier. By integrating eBay, PayPal and Facebook into this application, we give users an experience that employs the largest online marketplace, the safest online payment mechanism, and two of the largest social communities in the world. In doing so, eBay has created an experience that makes giving as a group easy, intuitive and fun — as it should be.”

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Creating and Choosing a Group Gift

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Creating a gift is as easy as inputting the gift recipient’s name and the occasion; but note that in order to set up a group gift, you will need to have a PayPal account so gift contributions can be collected.

If you’re hoping to get a more personalized list of gift suggestions, though, you should consider using Facebook Connect. Palmer explains, “To make more relevant gift suggestions, eBay uses information from the gift recipient’s Facebook () profile to help you find their perfect gift. We match that with event information and popular gift ideas to deliver an inspirational collection of gift recommendations.”

After inputting information about the recipient, you’ll be served a list of suggestions. If you click “Get social search suggestions,” eBay pulls in the recipient’s interests from Facebook. In this case, for Meghan Peters’s Festivus gift, eBay pulled in Peters’s favorite books and music as listed on her Facebook profile. Palmer elaborated on the social search suggestions:

“Social search suggestions are gift suggestions eBay makes for your friend based on information we’ve pulled from their Facebook profile. These suggestions are what eBay considers ‘targeted inspiration.’ You’ll see a results set after clicking on one of the suggestions that will be relevant to your friend’s interest while delivering a broad spectrum of related items.

“In some cases, friends may have selected privacy settings that don’t allow outside access to their profile information. For those instances, we cannot share suggestions based on Facebook information.”

It’s interesting to note that Amazon did precisely the same thing over the summer, but their Facebook integration only shows suggested items; it doesn’t add the extra benefit of being able to make group purchases.

Besides the social search suggestions, you can also choose from categories (such as Fashionista, Nester or Lady Gadget, in this case) that “change based on both the person you’ve selected and the occasion you’ve chosen,” according to Palmer. And if you’re still not sure what gift to choose, you can check out some of the “Top Products” on eBay to see what’s popular amongst the masses. You can also access eBay Lists from the gift selection page, in case you’ve saved items that the recipient may enjoy.

Note that you can only purchase “Buy It Now” items for group giving, as the total purchase amount is known — auction items are off limits. And if your gift sells out or expires before your group raises enough money, you can replace it with a similar item or issue a refund to contributors.

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Inviting Friends to Pitch In

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Now we get to the fun part — getting friends on board to help buy an awesome gift! After choosing the gift, you’re prompted to decide how much you’ll be contributing, enter your PayPal account information and sign the virtual greeting card that is generated once the gift purchase is complete.

You can then send email invites or Facebook invites privately; spread the word publicly by posting on Facebook or Twitter (); or share the unique group gift URL, which directs users to the group gift page (pictured below).

From there, the only thing left to do is fulfill the goal and you’re on your way to purchasing a group gift.