Did you ever have trouble buying birthday or holiday gifts for friends and family? Every year this is a constant struggle for me. What do you get some who has everything they need? What do they REALLY want?

The problem is that you want to get presents that are fun and unique – but ALSO useful. The worst possible scenario is that you give a gift that becomes “re-gifted.” This is a waste of your time and effort and it is upsetting.

While this is certainly an issue that will continue to exist in the future, it seems plausible that if we borrow current technology and best practices it can be eliminated – or at least alleviated.

Take the Internet-based Wedding Registry. This is the marvelous service that enables engaged couples to specify what gifts they want for their wedding. It provides answers to the “What do they want?” and “What do they need?” questions.

Why not create a website that is designed to provide this service for everyday life? A website could be created that allows people to create individual profiles – similar to the Friendster/Facebook/MySpace sites – with personal information regarding their “wish list” of desired presents.

Relationships could be established with major retailers, similar to the relationships for the wedding registries, which would allow individuals to actually browse through an online catalog and tag items. This would benefit both retailers and customers, as the online catalog could serve as an additional source of marketing – while registry items would be exactly what consumers desired.

...And I could finally purchase thoughtful AND useful gifts for friends and family.

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