The company even invited Wired.com to sit in on its internal discussions this spring about how the shopping site might integrate with Facebook users profiles, how it could mine them and what just felt creepy. Those conversations happened as Facebook experienced a massive backlash over its privacy changes, including a system called Instant Personalization, which automatically turned your profile data over to Yelp and Pandora if you visited their sites while still logged into Facebook.

Thefind largely shelved its plans — basically, waiting out the storm and seeing if Facebook would grow up a bit. (For the back story, see “The Inside Story of How One Company Didn’t Mine Facebook“.

On Thursday, Thefind turned on its first real use of the Facebook log-in. Those who choose to login using their Facebook accounts give the site permission to see their profiles and their friend profiles. Thefind then matches up the pages and stores and brands you’ve liked or become a fan of on Facebook, and lets you add them to the list of brands and stores you like on Thefind. Your search results are then adjusted so that items from the stores you like, whether that’s Target or a designer boutique or both, show up more prominently in your search.

But more intriguingly, when you look at an item in Thefind’s results, you can use the Facebook “Like” button to say you like a certain brand or a store. You can also see tiny profile pictures of your friends who like a store or brand, and how many people total on Facebook like a brand or store. The key, however, is that those “Like” buttons aren’t liking a profile page or brand on Thefind — they are tied to the retailer or shoe company’s fan page on Facebook.

“The idea behind the face is that the person you know is an ambassador,” said Ron Levi, a vice president at theFind. “There’s a little reinforcement for a retailer [who has the Facebook widget] when people come to their fan page or website.”

“But with theFind, now ‘Likes’ work to the retailer’s advantage,” Levi said.

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Authors: Ryan Singel

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