Through partnership with Groupon and other ecommerce sources, Facebook will continue testing limits of how much internet users will allow websites to affect — or guide — their lives.

Expansion of Facebook beyond original, social network functions seems perpetual. Radio and television commercials have long beckoned audience members to “like” a product's page there. In January, global investment and banking firm Goldman Sachs announced that $1.5 billion of corporation funds would go toward Facebook. Now, Mark Zuckerberg's company has formed financial affiliations with online sites which offer daily deals and coupons on local businesses. Whether such cooperative commerce is profitable depends on what degree of World Wide Web influence users will permit on real-world routines.

Wisely, Facebook has targeted established web sites, such as Groupon and LivingSocial, which proliferate discounts, mostly via click-throughs and e-mail. When users in test markets log into their social network accounts, an insignia will pop up and display available offers. "Liking" a deal is an activity which will naturally appear in friends’ News Feeds. Thus, product discovery occurs in numerous, different places.

In premise, this is a terrific marketing tool for small businesses. Success of Groupon, and similar services, is based upon allowing companies of any-size opportunity to leverage the Internet for increased spotlight and sales. With Facebook onboard, vast pools of users will encounter such profit-driven publicity, representing potential remedy for neighborhood shops to treat economic infirmity.

But comparable online initiatives have been unsuccessful. Last year, Twitter's “Earlybird Offers” program folded after two months. Regular visitors to Facebook may know of “Check-In Deals,” which allow users to post whereabouts using mobile phones at certain businesses to receive onsite discounts — widespread use of this feature is not yet achieved.

Questionable, then, is how broad of a role users want web sites to play in everyday life. Facebook may have become the internet's fundamental fabric, but to what extent can it continue binding to our society beyond digital domains? People may prefer to keep computers and public spheres separate.

Important to remember is that Facebook is a business. Among its leaders’ top priorities is fiscal growth. Moreover, Zuckerberg must now operate under Goldman Sachs’ pressure for remunerative performance. Web site participants, however, could sour on shopping suggestions — despite social communication’s increased transference online, individuals may favor to keep largely separate the basic privacy of personal choice.

Content provided by the Record-Journal, Meriden.