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"European budget airline easyJet is poised to become the first airline company to enable users to plan and book flights entirely on Facebook.\neasyJet currently offers a \"Holiday Planner\" Facebook app that helps fans plan trips with their friends through Facebook and email.  Users can coordinate destinations and dates, propose a range of budget options and then invite friends along for the trip.  \nHowever, users must go to a destination website to complete the transaction \u2014 a step easyJet wants to remove altogether by adding booking functionality to their Facebook app.\nFacebook has become a popular platform for hosting marketing campaigns and driving traffic to various destination sites, as Toys\"R\"Us famously did with their Black Friday preview on Facebook.  We're now seeing a shift toward conducting the entire experience within Facebook - a trend that may render destination sites all but irrelevant.  It's certainly a more convenient option for users who will not have to create a login and store credit card information on separate sites.\nIt's a shift that could also generate an unprecedented amount of revenue for Facebook.  According to the Department of Commerce, online purchases totaled $134.9 billion in 2009.  If companies set up e-commerce functionality on their Facebook Pages, the social network could realistically charge companies for a percentage of those sales in addition to attracting more advertising opportunities.  Facebook currently charges developers a whopping 30% of their Facebook Credits revenue.\nWould you book a flight through Facebook?  What other brands would you like to see open storefronts on Facebook?\n[via thenextweb]\n\n\nFor more social media coverage, follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2010/03/31/facebook-easyjet/>