What happens when the largest online retailer decides to team up with the most popular social networking site? Yes, you are right: a masterpiece.

Amazon has teamed up with Facebook to make shopping all the more special. Of course, the biggest grouse online shoppers might have about the process is that it pushes the familiar fellow-shoppers out of the picture. After all, who doesn’t appreciate some friendly advice on an unusual purchase?

Now, all you have to do to get your best buddy into the scene is link up your Amazon and Facebook accounts. The latter taps into your Facebook contact base to bring them out shopping with you. The connection lets you view your friends’ interests and most important of all, their birthdays. You can then go on to individually get recommendations on what to get for them or yourself-based on their wishlists; and Amazon offers to find wishlists for other people with the similar names.

All of these are good news, considering that Amazon has made a rather belated entry into the sphere of social shopping. Other than its timely feature of offering recommendations based on previous purchases, we had to wait for quite a while for the site to catch up with social features, while newer entries in the field had already started fiddling around with ideas.

Amazon spokeswoman Mary Osako said that the company was hoping to improve customers’ shopping experiences and help them find friends with shared interests while shopping. Amazon is also quick to point out that no private data or shopping details will be exchanged with Facebook. What are you waiting for, lets go shopping!