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AFTER MONTHS OF talk, it’s finally official: Facebook Facebook is testing a “Want” button.

Even though developers noticed code for a “Want” button in Facebook’s Javascript SDK in late June, the social media giant was very coy when approached about the matter, refusing to really confirm or deny its intentions.

Almost two months later, Facebook announced that it has joined forces with seven US retailers — including Pottery Barn, Victoria’s Secret, and Neiman Marcus — to test the platform which allows users to “want,” “collect,” or “like” a product. Note: if you “like” something, then the item will show up in your Timeline.

A spokesperson emailed a statement to AllFacebook explaining:

We’ve seen that businesses often use pages to share information about their products through photo albums. Today, we are beginning a small test in which a few select businesses will be able to share information about their products through a feature called Collections.  Collections can be discovered in news feed, and people will be able to engage with these collections and share things they are interested in with their friends. People can click through and buy these items off of Facebook.

Mashable points out that even though this sounds Pinterest-like, Facebook has one upped the pinning website because products within a given collection will also feature a Buy link.

Although Facebook won’t get a cut of sales, Robert W. Barid analyst Colin Sebastian told Reuters that the “Want” button provides other opportunities for monetisation. “In addition to potentially collecting a transaction fee for referring users to an e-commerce site, Sebastian said that retailers might also pay Facebook to promote products featured on users’ wishlists, similar to the way the Facebook’s current ads function.”

- Laura Stamper

Read: Is Facebook testing out a new ‘Want’ button?>